A 16-Channel Analog CMOS SiPM With On-Chip Front-End for D-ToF LiDAR

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems. I, Regular papers Regular papers, 2022-06, Vol.69 (6), p.2376-2386
• Main Authors: Liu, Maliang, Liu, Bingzheng, Hu, Jin, Li, Dong, Ma, Jiaji, Chu, Zekun, Ma, Rui, Zhu, Zhangming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: active quenching; Amplification; Anodes; Circuits; CMOS; Converters; Image resolution; Laser radar; Lidar; light detection and range (LiDAR); Microcell networks; Optical components; Photomultiplier tubes; Photonics; Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM); Single-photon avalanche diodes; Steering; time of flight (TOF); time-to-digital converter (TDC); Timing; Transistors; Variable gain
• ISSN: 1549-8328; 1558-0806
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSI.2022.3160265

This article presents a 16-channel analog silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) with on-chip front-end for direct time-of-flight (D-ToF) LiDAR applications. The proposed receiver is mainly composed of 16-channel SiPM, variable gain amplifier (VGA) and time-to-digital converter (TDC). Each SiPM channel consists of 256 microcells, and their outputs are connected to a common output terminal in parallel. A novel active quenching circuit is adopted to reduce the long exponential tail in conventional SiPM and enable the capability of multi-echo detection. Current steering circuits are adopted within microcells to make the output current of SiPM immune to SPAD gain variations. The receiver was fabricated in 180-nm HV CMOS technology and integrated into the 16-line LiDAR prototype with optical components. Measurement results show that the sensor is capable of 20 m range imaging with 3 cm accuracy under 40 klux background light conditions. With the mechanical scanning system, a high-resolution image ( 240\times16 ) can be obtained.