Chon Yeojin, Choi Shinhae, Joo Jieun, Park Sung-Min
Division of Electronic & Semiconductor Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea.
Graduate Program in Smart Factory, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Oct 17;24(20):6686. doi: 10.3390/s24206686.
This paper presents an 8 × 8 channel optoelectronic readout array (ORA) realized in the TSMC 180 nm 1P6M RF CMOS process for the applications of short-range light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors. We propose several circuit techniques in this work, including an amplitude-to-voltage (A2V) converter that reduces the notorious walk errors by intensity compensation and a time-to-voltage (T2V) converter that acquires the linear slope of the output signals by exploiting a charging circuit, thus extending the input dynamic range significantly from 5 μA to 1.1 mA, i.e., 46.8 dB. These results correspond to the maximum detection range of 8.2 m via the action of the A2V converter and the minimum detection range of 56 cm with the aid of the proposed T2V converter. Optical measurements utilizing an 850 nm laser diode confirm that the proposed 8 × 8 ORA with 64 on-chip avalanche photodiodes (APDs) can successfully recover the narrow 5 ns light pulses even at the shortest distance of 56 cm. Hence, this work provides a potential CMOS solution for low-cost, low-power, short-range LiDAR sensors.
本文介绍了一种采用台积电180nm 1P6M射频互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）工艺实现的8×8通道光电读出阵列（ORA），用于短程光探测与测距（LiDAR）传感器应用。我们在这项工作中提出了几种电路技术，包括一个通过强度补偿减少臭名昭著的走离误差的幅度 - 电压（A2V）转换器，以及一个通过利用充电电路获取输出信号线性斜率的时间 - 电压（T2V）转换器，从而将输入动态范围从5μA显著扩展到1.1 mA，即46.8 dB。这些结果对应于通过A2V转换器作用的最大探测范围8.2 m以及借助所提出的T2V转换器的最小探测范围56 cm。利用850 nm激光二极管进行的光学测量证实，所提出的具有64个片上雪崩光电二极管（APD）的8×8 ORA即使在最短距离56 cm时也能成功恢复5 ns的窄光脉冲。因此，这项工作为低成本、低功耗、短程LiDAR传感器提供了一种潜在的CMOS解决方案。
