Analytical Modeling of Perimeter Gated SPAD-based LiDAR Sensor

This paper presents a new analytical model for a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system using perimeter-gated single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) based flash sensors. We have developed a Monte Carlo simulator to analyze the performance of perimeter-gated SPADs based LiDAR system for low-light scenarios. A perimeter-gated SPAD is an upgraded version of a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD). It has a third terminal, a gate, to reduce the perimeter edge breakdown without unduly expanding the device's surface area. In addition, dark count rate, breakdown voltage, and dynamic range characteristics are all can be modified by the applied gate voltage. The simulation environment has been designed to precisely simulate the parts of a flash LiDAR system, including the optics, illumination source, and the perimeter-gated SPAD-based CMOS image sensor architecture. Results show that the applied gate voltage of the perimeter-gated SPAD improves the noise performance in the LiDAR system.