Optical Detection ADC Data Reduction for Echo Window Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Optical detection systems, such as LIDAR, face challenges in processing full-resolution, full-data-rate records from analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuits, leading to significant power consumption, physical area requirements, and limited bandwidth due to high data link demands, with a substantial portion of the data being unnecessary background noise or interference.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a signal processor circuit co-integrated with the ADC to identify features of interest within the ADC output, reducing data transfer by preserving only relevant samples and dropping unnecessary ones, thereby maintaining conversion rate or resolution within specific temporal windows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If full waveform processing is used to maintain highest sensitivity and resolution, then measurement precision is improved, but use of energy and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes only the relevant portions of the ADC output signal. A processor identifies temporal windows containing features of interest (echoes) and processes only those segments, rather than processing the entire high-resolution ADC output. This extraction approach maintains measurement precision for relevant signals while dramatically reducing power consumption by avoiding processing of unnecessary data portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the continuous ADC output signal into distinct temporal windows, each potentially containing an echo feature. By dividing the full waveform into discrete segments and processing only those containing relevant information, the system achieves high precision where needed while reducing overall computational energy requirements.
2Measurement precision
If full bandwidth ADC processing is used, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and physical area increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary amplitude information from the full-bandwidth ADC output within identified temporal windows. Rather than processing the complete high-resolution signal continuously, the system extracts relevant echo portions and processes only those segments, reducing device complexity while maintaining amplitude resolution precision for features of interest.
3Measurement precision
If high sample rate ADC is used, then measurement precision is improved, but data link bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the temporal windows containing echo features from the high-rate ADC output, discarding the vast majority of background noise samples. This extraction maintains time resolution precision for relevant signals while reducing the quantity of data that must be transmitted by several orders of magnitude.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the high-sample-rate ADC output into discrete temporal windows containing echoes. By processing and transmitting only these segmented portions rather than the continuous high-rate stream, the system maintains time resolution where needed while dramatically reducing overall data volume.
4Measurement precision
If full data rate transmission is used, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of energy in data transmission increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the relevant signal portions containing echo information from the full ADC output for transmission. This extraction maintains signal fidelity for features of interest while reducing transmission power requirements by eliminating the transmission of unnecessary background noise data.
Data Source
AI summary
In an optical detection system, features of interest can be identified from ADC circuitry data prior to inter-circuit communication with downstream object or target processing circuitry. In this manner, a volume of data being transferred to such downstream processing circuitry can be reduced as compared to other approaches, simplifying the receive signal processing chain and providing power savings. First-tier signal processing circuitry to identify features of interest can be located on or within a commonly-shared integrated circuit package with ADC circuitry, and downstream processing circuitry for object processing or range estimation can be fed with a data link meeting less stringent requirements than a link between the ADC circuitry and first-tier signal processing circuitry.