Mixed Design of SPAD Array Based TOF for Depth Camera and Unmanned Vehicle Applications

Depends on the increasing requirements of unmanned vehicle mobile Lidar systems, this paper presents a system design based on pulsed TOF depth image cameras. The design has a detection range of 300m and detecting resolution of 1.5cm. Pixels are made of SPAD. Meanwhile, innovative structure of multi-pixel sharing TDC is proposed, chip area is greatly reduced and the fill factor of light-sensing surface area is optimized. The TCSPC module with the functionalities of receiving each photon, measuring photon flight time and processing depth information is also included in the chip design. Based on 0.13μm CIS CMOS technology, the entire design indicates high integration with low power and fast response features.