Patents by Inventor Dongyi Liao

Dongyi Liao has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20200241399
    Abstract: A light projection system includes a base, a lens, and a set of flexures flexibly attaching the lens to the base. The light projection system further includes a board fixedly attached to the base, and a light source mounted on the board and spaced apart from the lens along an optical axis of the lens. The light source is configured to emit a light beam to be projected by the lens toward a scene. The light projection system further includes a driving mechanism configured to scan the lens via the set of flexures in a plane substantially perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens, thereby scanning the light beam emitted by the light source over the scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: Cepton Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Wei, Dongyi Liao, Mark A. McCord
  • Publication number: 20190257922
    Abstract: A headlamp module of a vehicle includes a housing including a window, an illumination submodule disposed inside the housing and configured to provide illumination light to be transmitted through the window toward a scene in front of the vehicle, and a first LiDAR sensor disposed inside the housing and laterally displaced from the illumination submodule. The first LiDAR sensor includes one or more laser sources configured to emit laser beams to be transmitted through the window toward the scene, the laser beams being reflected off of one or more objects in the scene, thereby generating return laser beams to be transmitted through the window toward the first LiDAR sensor and one or more detectors configured to receive and detect the return laser beams.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2019
    Publication date: August 22, 2019
    Applicant: Cepton Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark A. McCord, Jun Pei, Liqun Han, Dongyi Liao, Wei Wei
  • Publication number: 20190162857
    Abstract: An optical system includes a laser source having an emission area that has a first width in a first direction and a first height in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, the first width being greater than the first height. The optical system further includes a cylindrical lens having a negative power and positioned in front of the laser source. The cylindrical lens is oriented such that a power axis of the cylindrical lens is along the first direction. The cylindrical lens is configured to transform the emission area of a laser beam emitted by the laser source into a virtual emission area having a virtual width and a virtual height, where the virtual width is less than the first width. The optical system further includes an rotationally symmetric lens positioned downstream from the cylindrical lens and configured to collimate and direct the laser beam towards a far-field.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Publication date: May 30, 2019
    Applicant: Cepton Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark A. McCord, Jun Pei, Dongyi Liao
  • Publication number: 20190162858
    Abstract: A lidar system includes a laser source, an emission lens configured to collimate and direct a laser beam emitted by the laser source, a receiving lens configured to receive and focus a return laser beam reflected off of one or more objects to a return beam spot at a focal plane of the receiving lens, and a detector including a plurality of photo sensors arranged as an array at the focal plane of the receiving lens. Each photo sensor has a respective sensing area and is configured to receive and detect a respective portion of the return laser beam. The lidar system further includes a processor configured to determine a respective time of flight for each respective portion of the return laser beam, and construct a three-dimensional image of the one or more objects based on the respective time of flight for each respective portion of the return laser beam.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Publication date: May 30, 2019
    Applicant: Cepton Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark A. McCord, Jun Pei, Dongyi Liao
  • Publication number: 20190120940
    Abstract: A scanning lidar system includes a fixed frame, a first platform, and a first electro-optic assembly. The first electro-optic assembly includes a first laser source and a first photodetector mounted on the first platform. The scanning lidar system further includes a first flexure assembly flexibly coupling the first platform to the fixed frame, and a drive mechanism configured to scan the first platform with respect to the fixed frame in two dimensions in a plane substantially perpendicular to an optical axis of the lidar system. The scanning lidar system further includes a controller coupled to the drive mechanism. The controller is configured to cause the drive mechanism to scan the first platform in a first direction with a first frequency and in a second direction with a second frequency. The second frequency is similar but not identical to the first frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2018
    Publication date: April 25, 2019
    Applicant: Cepton Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jun Pei, Mark A. McCord, Roger David Cullumber, Yupeng Cui, Dongyi Liao
  • Patent number: 9985638
    Abstract: A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) modulation apparatus and method provides a wideband phase-modulated signal output. An exemplary modulator circuit uses an oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The circuit receives a wrapped-phase input signal, unwraps the wrapped-phase input signal to generate an unwrapped-phase signal, and differentiates the unwrapped-phase signal. The wrapped-phase input signal and the differentiated unwrapped-phase signal are both injected into a feedback loop of the modulator circuit. The feedback loop may include a multi-modulus frequency divider with a frequency divisor that is temporarily incremented or decremented to cancel out abrupt phase jumps associated with the wrapped-phase to unwrapped-phase conversion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: Innophase INC.
    Inventors: Yang Xu, Fa Dai, Dongyi Liao
  • Publication number: 20170194975
    Abstract: A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) modulation apparatus and method provides a wideband phase-modulated signal output. An exemplary modulator circuit uses an oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The circuit receives a wrapped-phase input signal, unwraps the wrapped-phase input signal to generate an unwrapped-phase signal, and differentiates the unwrapped-phase signal. The wrapped-phase input signal and the differentiated unwrapped-phase signal are both injected into a feedback loop of the modulator circuit. The feedback loop may include a multi-modulus frequency divider with a frequency divisor that is temporarily incremented or decremented to cancel out abrupt phase jumps associated with the wrapped-phase to unwrapped-phase conversion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2017
    Publication date: July 6, 2017
    Inventors: Yang Xu, Fa Dai, Dongyi Liao
  • Patent number: 9608648
    Abstract: A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) modulation apparatus and method provides a wideband phase-modulated signal output. An exemplary modulator circuit uses an oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The circuit receives a wrapped-phase input signal, unwraps the wrapped-phase input signal to generate an unwrapped-phase signal, and differentiates the unwrapped-phase signal. The wrapped-phase input signal and the differentiated unwrapped-phase signal are both injected into a feedback loop of the modulator circuit. The feedback loop may include a multi-modulus frequency divider with a frequency divisor that is temporarily incremented or decremented to cancel out abrupt phase jumps associated with the wrapped-phase to unwrapped-phase conversion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: INNOPHASE, INC.
    Inventors: Yang Xu, Fa Dai, Dongyi Liao
  • Publication number: 20160322980
    Abstract: A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) modulation apparatus and method provides a wideband phase-modulated signal output. An exemplary modulator circuit uses an oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The circuit receives a wrapped-phase input signal, unwraps the wrapped-phase input signal to generate an unwrapped-phase signal, and differentiates the unwrapped-phase signal. The wrapped-phase input signal and the differentiated unwrapped-phase signal are both injected into a feedback loop of the modulator circuit. The feedback loop may include a multi-modulus frequency divider with a frequency divisor that is temporarily incremented or decremented to cancel out abrupt phase jumps associated with the wrapped-phase to unwrapped-phase conversion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2016
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Inventors: Yang Xu, Fa Dai, Dongyi Liao
  • Patent number: 9391625
    Abstract: A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) modulation apparatus and method provides a wideband phase-modulated signal output. An exemplary modulator circuit uses an oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The circuit receives a wrapped-phase input signal, unwraps the wrapped-phase input signal to generate an unwrapped-phase signal, and differentiates the unwrapped-phase signal. The wrapped-phase input signal and the differentiated unwrapped-phase signal are both injected into a feedback loop of the modulator circuit. The feedback loop may include a multi-modulus frequency divider with a frequency divisor that is temporarily incremented or decremented to cancel out abrupt phase jumps associated with the wrapped-phase to unwrapped-phase conversion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: INNOPHASE INC.
    Inventors: Yang Xu, Fa Foster Dai, Dongyi Liao
  • Patent number: 7129909
    Abstract: A method and system using a compressed display mode list is disclosed. In particular, the compressed display mode list includes a plurality of data representing the display modes. The data is formatted according to a plurality of compression format rules. The compression format rules reduce and minimize the size of the compressed display mode list. A driver controls a graphical processing unit that renders an image for displaying on a display device according to a selected display mode from the compressed display mode list. Moreover, a computer-readable medium can store the compressed display mode list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2006
    Assignee: nVidia Corporation
    Inventors: Yu Dong, Dongyi Liao, Gregory P. Kwok