This article presents a 40-channel high-resolution automotive LiDAR system-on-chip (SoC), which utilizes the world’s first dual-data converter (DDC). The proposed DDC consolidates the functions of ADC and TDC into a single circuitry and achieves acquisition of both high-precision time and voltage data from the input, realizing a 5 $\times $ smaller analog front-end (AFE) area than prior arts. Such innovations lead us to a 40-channel AFE integration of the SoC without silicon cost increase, which characterizes our LiDAR system with 2 $\times $ higher pixel resolution. To enhance the ADC’s signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) without sacrificing the area efficiency, a calibration-free and variation-tolerant voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)-based ADC with a multiphase pulse density modulator (MP-PDM)-based feedback is proposed. Our proof-of-concept LiDAR system achieves a measurement range of 225 m at 70-klx direct sunlight, with a resolution of 240 $\times $ 192 pixels at 10 frames per second (FPS). To quantitatively measure the effect of the resolution improvement of our LiDAR, we evaluate the LiDAR’s detection accuracy of small targets 75 m away. Due to the 2 $\times $ higher vertical pixel resolution, our LiDAR can detect targets with 2 $\times $ smaller height. The 3-D point cloud of the LiDAR captured outdoor in the wild is presented.

中文翻译：

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用于 240 x 192 像素 225 米范围成像的汽车 LiDAR SoC，具有 40 通道 0.0036 平方毫米电压/时间基于双数据转换器的 AFE

本文介绍了一款采用全球首个双数据转换器 (DDC) 的 40 通道高分辨率汽车 LiDAR 片上系统 (SoC)。所提出的 DDC 将 ADC 和 TDC 的功能整合到一个电路中，实现了从输入端同时获取高精度时间和电压数据，实现了 5 $\times $ 比现有技术更小的模拟前端 (AFE) 区域。这些创新使我们能够在不增加硅成本的情况下实现 SoC 的 40 通道 AFE 集成，这使我们的 LiDAR 系统具有 2 $\times $ 更高的像素分辨率。为了在不牺牲面积效率的情况下提高 ADC 的信噪比和失真比 (SNDR)，基于 ADC 和多相脉冲密度调制器 (MP-PDM) 的免校准和容变压控振荡器 (VCO)提出了基于反馈的意见。我们的概念验证 LiDAR 系统在 70 klx 直射阳光下实现了 225 m 的测量范围，分辨率为 240 $\times $ 192 像素，每秒 10 帧 (FPS)。为了定量测量我们的 LiDAR 分辨率提高的效果，我们评估了 LiDAR 对 75 m 外小目标的检测精度。由于 2 $\times $ 更高的垂直像素分辨率，我们的 LiDAR 可以用 2 $\times $ 较小的高度。展示了野外野外捕获的 LiDAR 的 3-D 点云。