This design demonstrates a high-speed optical front-end with a Time of Flight (ToF) distance measurement circuit using a fiber-optic transmission medium, which can be adapted to any type of ToF measurement such as through free space. This design features an industry-leading 2.5-V output linear transimpedance front-end with 10 kΩ of gain and over 200-MHz bandwidth for high-accuracy measurements. The received signal is digitized using the TDC7201 converter operating in short time mode, which improves the measurement accuracy of the device from 12 ns to 250 ps, further reinforcing the high accuracy nature of the design. The measurement is controlled using the MSP430 microcontroller on a LaunchPad™ development kit for easy plug and play compatibility. Overall, the design achieves higher speed and accuracy, reduces complexity and lowers power compared to fully digitized designs that require high-speed ADCs and FPGAs.
Features
- Optical front-end design with demonstrated time-of-flight measurement
- High-Speed amplifier signal path with bandwidth greater than 200 MHz at Gain = 10 kΩ
- Centimeter level measurement accuracy
- High-speed transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for I-to-V conversion
- Low computational cost and power requirements