Photo-detecting apparatus and current recycling method

Abstract

The invention discloses an photo-detecting apparatus and a current recycling method. The photo-detecting apparatus (100) includes a first photodetector (111), a second photodetector (112), a first modulation signal generating circuit (101) and a second modulation signal generating circuit (102). The first photodetector (111) is configured to generate at least a first detecting signal (SO11, SO12)according a first modulation signal (SI11, SI12). The second photodetector (112) is configured to generate a second detecting signal (SO21, SO22) according a second modulation signal (SI21, SI22). Thefirst modulation signal generating circuit (101) is coupled to the first photodetector (111) and operated between a first voltage (V1) and a second voltage (V2), and is configured to generate the first modulation signal (Sill, SI12). The second modulation signal generating circuit (102) is coupled to the second photodetector (112) and operated between the second voltage (V2) and a third voltage (V3). The second modulation signal generating circuit (102) is configured to generate a second modulation signal (SI21, SI22). The value of the second voltage (V2) is between the first voltage (V1) andthe third voltage (V3).

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to time-of-flight (ToF) applications, in particular to an optical detection apparatus (apparatus) with a current reuse mechanism and a current reuse method. Background technique [0002] In a time-of-flight sensor, the light detector is a basic device, and can collectively form a pixel array to detect the arrival time of reflected light to determine the distance between the time-of-flight sensor and a target object distance between. Usually all photodetectors in the pixel array are directly coupled to a low-dropout voltage generated by a low-dropout (LDO) regulator, wherein the power of the low-dropout regulator Power consumption is determined based on its output voltage and load. Under this concept, when the time-of-flight ranging sensor requires a high-resolution pixel array, more photodetectors will need to be added under the low-dropout voltage regulator, which will continue to increase the overall power consumption....

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0003] One way to reduce power consumption is to directly minimize the output voltage of the LDO, however, this approach will sacrifice the demodulation contrast (Cd) of the photodetector

In addition, simply reducing the DC-to-DC voltage to adjust power consumption cannot solve the problem of current spikes, for example, the maximum current spike is still high

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