A High-Throughput Photon Processing Technique for Range Extension of SPAD-Based LiDAR Receivers

• Published in: IEEE open journal of solid-state circuits Vol. 2; pp. 12 - 25
• Main Authors: Patanwala, Sarrah M., Gyongy, Istvan, Mai, Hanning, Abmann, Andreas, Dutton, Neale A. W., Rae, Bruce R., Henderson, Robert K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Avalanche diodes; Converters; Emulators; Field programmable gate arrays; Laser radar; Lidar; Light detection and ranging (LiDAR); Light emitting diodes; macro-pixel; Monte Carlo simulation; Photon avalanches; Photonics; Photons; Sensors; single photon avalanche diode (SPAD); Single-photon avalanche diodes; synthetic 3D data; Three dimensional models; Three-dimensional displays; time to digital converter (TDC); time-of-flight (ToF)
• ISSN: 2644-1349; 2644-1349
• DOI: 10.1109/OJSSCS.2021.3118987

There has recently been a keen interest in developing Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems using Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) sensors. This has led to a variety of implementations in pixel combining techniques and Time to Digital Converter (TDC) architectures for such sensors. This paper presents a comparison of these approaches and demonstrates a technique capable of extending the range of LiDAR systems with improved resilience to background conditions. A LiDAR system emulator using a reconfigurable SPAD array and FPGA interface is used to compare these different techniques. A Monte Carlo simulation model leveraging synthetic 3D data is presented to visualize the sensor performance on realistic automotive LiDAR scenes.