Single-photon 3D ranging based on SPAD imagers

Three dimensional (3D) ranging is a break through feature for imaging detectors. Increasing the spatial precision of 3D measurements and improving the system frame-rate are key objectives of research and industry, for novel exploitations of LIDAR. In this paper we present a 3D ranging system with single-photon sensitivity, based on a microelectronic Single-Photon Avalanche Diode array chip able to capture bi-dimensional (2D) images and to reconstruct distance information through time-gated photon counting and phase reconstruction.