PLANAR DISTANCE AND VELOCITY SENSOR

A planar distance and velocity sensor based on a hybrid combination of a light source and a single CMOS photodetector/analog/digital chip is presented. The specific shape of the photodetector calculates a nonli near geometrical correction purely optically. Hence, electronic data p rocessing is reduced to a minimum, and it can be performed in the anal og domain, on the same CMOS chip where the photodetector is placed. Si nce the (analog) distance and velocity signals are generated simultane ously, the device is particularly useful for time-to-contact measureme nts.