SOI ToF Sensor for LiDAR

MDPI publishes a paper "A Back-Illuminated Time-of-Flight Image Sensor with SOI-Based Fully Depleted Detector Technology for LiDAR Application" by Sanggwon Lee, Keita Yasutomi, Ho Hai Nam, Masato Morita, and Shoji Kawahito from Shizuoka University.

"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."