A Back-Illuminated Time-of-Flight Image Sensor with SOI-Based Fully Depleted Detector Technology for LiDAR Application

A back-illuminated time-of-flight (ToF) image sensor based on a 0.2 µm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS detector technology using fully-depleted substrate is developed for the light detection and ranging (LiDAR) applications. A fully-depleted 200 µm-thick bulk silicon is used for the higher quantum efficiency (QE) in a near-infrared (NIR) region. The developed SOI pixel structure has a 4-tapped charge modulator with a draining function to achieve a higher range resolution and to cancel background light signal. A distance is measured up to 27 m with a range resolution of 12 cm at the outdoor and average light power density is 150 mW/m2@30 m.

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A Time-of-Flight Range Sensor Using Four-Tap Lock-In Pixels with High near Infrared Sensitivity for LiDAR Applications

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20010116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 116 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sanggwon Lee ◽

Keita Yasutomi ◽

Masato Morita ◽

Hodaka Kawanishi ◽

Shoji Kawahito

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Short Pulse ◽

Time Of Flight ◽

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Cmos Technology ◽

Silicon On Insulator ◽

Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Fully Depleted ◽

High Modulation

In this paper, a back-illuminated (BSI) time-of-flight (TOF) sensor using 0.2 µm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology is developed for long-range laser imaging detection and ranging (LiDAR) application. A 200 µm-thick bulk silicon in the SOI substrate is fully depleted by applying high negative voltage at the backside for higher quantum efficiency (QE) in a near-infrared (NIR) region. The proposed SOI-based four-tap charge modulator achieves a high-speed charge modulation and high modulation contrast of 71% in a NIR region. In addition, in-pixel drain function is used for short-pulse TOF measurements. A distance measurement up to 27 m is carried out with +1.8~−3.0% linearity error and range resolution of 4.5 cm in outdoor conditions. The measured QE of 55% is attained at 940 nm which is suitable for outdoor use due to the reduced spectral components of solar radiation.

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A Sub-100 $\mu$ m-Range-Resolution Time-of-Flight Range Image Sensor With Three-Tap Lock-In Pixels, Non-Overlapping Gate Clock, and Reference Plane Sampling

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits ◽

10.1109/jssc.2019.2916310 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 54 (8) ◽

pp. 2291-2303 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Keita Yasutomi ◽

Yushi Okura ◽

Keiichiro Kagawa ◽

Shoji Kawahito

Keyword(s):

Time Of Flight ◽

Image Sensor ◽

Reference Plane ◽

Range Image ◽

Resolution Time ◽

Range Resolution ◽

Flight Range ◽

Lock In

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Space Astrometry JASMINE

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s174392130801939x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (S248) ◽

pp. 296-297 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

T. Yano ◽

N. Gouda ◽

Y. Kobayashi ◽

Y. Yamada ◽

T. Tsujimoto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Near Infrared ◽

Focal Length ◽

Field Of View ◽

Galactic Bulge ◽

Satellite Mission ◽

Fully Depleted ◽

Thick Substrate ◽

Trigonometric Parallaxes ◽

Space Astrometry ◽

Back Illuminated

AbstractJASMINE is the acronym of the Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared (z-band: 0.9 micron) Exploration, and is planned to be launched around 2017. The main objective of JASMINE is to study the fundamental structure and evolution of the Milky Way bulge components. In order to accomplish these objectives, JASMINE will measure trigonometric parallaxes, positions and proper motions of about ten million stars in the Galactic bulge with a precision of 10 microarcsec at z = 14mag.The primary mirror for the telescope has a diameter of 75cm with a focal length of 22.5m. The back-illuminated CCD is fabricated on a 300 micron thick substrate which is fully depleted. These thick devices have extended near infrared response. The size of the detector for z-band is 3cm×3cm with 2048×2048 pixels. The size of the field of view is about 0.6deg×0.6deg by using 64 detectors on the focal plane. The telescope is designed to have only one field of view, which is different from the designs of other astrometric satellites. JASMINE will observe overlapping fields without gaps to survey a total area of about 20deg×10 deg around the Galactic bulge. Accordingly we make a “large frame” of 20deg×10 deg by linking the small frames using stars in overlapping regions. JASMINE will observe the Galactic bulge repeatedly during the mission life of about 5 years.

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Near-infrared sensitivity enhancement of a back-illuminated complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensor with a pyramid surface for diffraction structure

2017 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) ◽

10.1109/iedm.2017.8268403 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

I. Oshiyama ◽

S. Yokogawa ◽

H. Ikeda ◽

Y. Ebiko ◽

T. Hirano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Metal Oxide ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Sensitivity Enhancement ◽

Image Sensor ◽

Metal Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Diffraction Structure ◽

Back Illuminated

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$320 \times 240$ Back-Illuminated 10- $\mu \text{m}$ CAPD Pixels for High-Speed Modulation Time-of-Flight CMOS Image Sensor

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits ◽

10.1109/jssc.2018.2789403 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 53 (4) ◽

pp. 1071-1078 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Yuichi Kato ◽

Takuya Sano ◽

Yusuke Moriyama ◽

Shunji Maeda ◽

Takeshi Yamazaki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Time Of Flight ◽

Cmos Image Sensor ◽

Image Sensor ◽

Speed Modulation ◽

High Speed Modulation ◽

Back Illuminated

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320×240 Back-illuminated 10μm CAPD pixels for high speed modulation Time-of-Flight CMOS image sensor

2017 Symposium on VLSI Circuits ◽

10.23919/vlsic.2017.8008511 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yuichi Kato ◽

Takuya Sano ◽

Yusuke Moriyama ◽

Shunji Maeda ◽

Takeshi Yamazaki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Time Of Flight ◽

Cmos Image Sensor ◽

Image Sensor ◽

Speed Modulation ◽

High Speed Modulation ◽

Back Illuminated

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A 250 m Direct Time-of-Flight Ranging System Based on a Synthesis of Sub-Ranging Images and a Vertical Avalanche Photo-Diodes (VAPD) CMOS Image Sensor

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18113642 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 3642 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Yutaka Hirose ◽

Shinzo Koyama ◽

Motonori Ishii ◽

Shigeru Saitou ◽

Masato Takemoto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Near Infrared ◽

Time Of Flight ◽

Depth Map ◽

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Laser Pulses ◽

Cmos Image Sensor ◽

Image Sensor ◽

Metal Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Oxide Semiconductor ◽

Pixel Circuit

We have developed a direct time-of-flight (TOF) 250 m ranging Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor (CIS) based on a 688 × 384 pixels array of vertical avalanche photodiodes (VAPD). Each pixel of the CIS comprises VAPD with a standard four transistor pixel circuit equipped with an analogue capacitor to accumulate or count avalanche pulses. High power near infrared (NIR) short (<50 ns) and repetitive (6 kHz) laser pulses are illuminated through a diffusing optics. By globally gating the VAPD, each pulse is counted in the in-pixel counter enabling extraction of sub-photon level signal. Depth map imaging with a 10 cm lateral resolution is realized from 1 m to 250 m range by synthesizing subranges images of photon counts. Advantages and limitation of an in-pixel circuit are described. The developed CIS is expected to supersede insufficient resolution of the conventional light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems and the short range of indirect CIS TOF.

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