Patent ID: 7777173
Filing Date: 2010-08-17
Classification: G01S,G08G

Abstract:
1. An object detection system for detecting the presence of an object in a monitored zone, comprising: a) an optical transmitter for generating a plurality of emitter beams intermittently into the monitored zone; b) an optical receiver for receiving the emitter beams reflected from an object in the monitored zone; and c) a system board electrically coupled to the optical transmitter and receiver, the system board including logic functional to cause the transmitter to generate optical emitter beams, to cause the receiver to receive the optical emitter beams reflected from the object and to process the received optical emitter beams; d) wherein the optical transmitter comprises an emitter module having a plurality of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) chips, each VCSEL chip comprising a plurality of spaced VCSEL diodes operable to produce the emitter beams, the optical transmitter further comprising a transmitter circuit board mounting each VCSEL chip, the plurality of VCSEL diodes on each VCSEL chip being mounted on a substrate in a surface mount package having an integral dissipating element in a pre-defined two dimensional array, wherein the system board operates the emitter module to electrically pulse the VCSEL diodes at a duty cycle of less than approximately 1.5% for limiting the temperature of the diodes to produce high intensity emitter beams without damaging the VCSEL diodes.