Silicon photomultiplier enables industrial lidar
The silicon photomultiplier sensor overcomes some of the problems with near infrared light, such as wash-out due to high ambient light and response time and sensitivity.
The reference platform uses the RB-Series, On Semiconductor’s second generation of SiPM sensors, which deliver improved performance in red and the NIR range and can detect objects at distances between 10cm and 23m.
The platform provides a single point lidar that can be adapted to create industrial range finding applications. It includes the NIR laser diode, SiPM sensor and optics, as well as the digital processing necessary to convert the detected signals into elapsed time, and elapsed time into distance.
To accelerate customers’ time to market, ON Semiconductor has made all of the design data for the reference platform available, covering the schematics, BoM, gerber files, and PCB design files. A PC-based GUI is also accessible, which provides a graphical representation of the measurements over time. The histograms generated provide further evidence of the system’s capabilities in applications such as range finding, collision detection and 3D.
Related links and articles:
SiPMs in Direct ToF Ranging Applications
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