Extraneous-light resistant multipixel range sensor based on a low-power correlating pixel-circuit

This work covers a correlation-based, optical time-of-flight matrix range sensor which is able to suppress ambient light up to 150 klx full-electronically and autonomously in each single pixel. The CMOS-compatible sensor features 16times16 pixels and permits distance measurements with a standard deviation of 1 cm (5 cm) up to 1 m (3.2 m), while the linearity error is within plusmn2 cm for the entire measurement range within a measurement time of 50 ms per distance point. A 0.9 W LED source is used to illuminate the field of view with near-infrared light, which is modulated at 10 MHz. In this design, the current consumption could be reduced from 100 muA to 2 muA per pixel, while increasing the distance measurement performance at the same time.