STMicroelectronics has announced the new family of high-resolution Time-of-Flight sensors that bring advanced 3D depth imaging to smartphones and other devices. This new family debut with a VD55H1 sensor that addresses emerging AR/VR market use cases including room mapping, gaming, and 3D avatars. This sensor provides high-fidelity 3D scene mapping for all target distances to enable new and more powerful capabilities.
Combined with a 940 nm illumination system, it enables building a small form-factor 3D camera producing a high-definition depth map with typical ranging distance up to 5 meters in full resolution, and beyond 5 meters with patterned illumination. The low-power 4.6 µm pixel of this sensor enables state-of-the-art power consumption, with average sensor power down to 80 mW in some modes.
Features
- 672 x 804 indirect Time-of-Flight (iToF) sensor die (0.54 Mpixel)
- 4.6 μm backside illuminated fast photodiode pixel, 1/4’’ optical format
- Pixel with >85% demodulation contrast at 200 MHz modulation frequency
- Low noise charge domain pixel (kTC free) < 5e-
- Multifrequency supported (up to three frequencies)
- Raw data output on MIPI CSI2 interface at 1.5 GHz (quad or dual lane)
- 10/12-bit configurable ADC resolution
- Sensor raw output up to 120 fps (depth-level frame rate)
This new sensor features a 200 MHz low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) and a 10 MHz, 3-wire SPI interface to control the laser driver with high flexibility. With a unique ability to operate at 200 MHz modulation frequency and more than 85% demodulation contrast, the sensor can produce depth precision twice as good as typical 100 MHz modulated sensors, while multifrequency operation provides long distance ranging.
