2022 Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 20210518
Flash LIDAR is needed in order to take 3D images for obstacle avoidance and to measure relative distances and attitudes during lunar and planetary landings, surface exploration, and orbital rendezvous docking with spacecraft. Meanwhile, commercial Flash LIDAR is being developed for capturing 3D images required by autonomous cars and drones. We have developed a prototype 1K pixel 3D image sensor using Silicon-MPPC, which is capable of photon counting, as the light-receiving sensor [1]. In this paper, we describe the basic structure, circuit configuration, functions, and evaluation results of the basic performance of the sensor.