Optical distance measuring device

• Main Authors: EISELE ANDREAS, WOLST OLIVER, SCHMIDTKE BERND
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.11.2015
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; NAVIGATION; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SURVEYING; TESTING

The invention relates to a measuring device (10) for optically measuring a distance to a target object (15). Said measuring device (10) comprising an emitter device (12) for emitting an optical measuring beam (13) to the target object (15), a capturing device (14) comprising a detection surface (66) for detecting an optical beam (16) returned by the target object (15) and an evaluation device (36). Said detection surface (66) has a plurality of pixels, each pixel having at least one SPAD (single photon avalanche diode) and each of the plurality of pixels is connected to the evaluation device (36). Said emitting device and the capturing device are configured in such a manner that the optical measurement beam returned by the target object simultaneously illuminates a plurality of pixels. Said evaluation device is configured in order to determine the distance between the measuring device and the target object based on the evaluation of detection signals of several pixels. Advantageously, at least some of the pixels comprise respectively a plurality of SPADs, the number or surface of SPAD's contained in a pixel can vary depending on the place of the pixel within the detection surface.