An on-chip Pixel Processing Approach with 2.4μs latency for Asynchronous Read-out of SPAD-based dToF Flash LiDARs

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Liu, Yiyang, Zhang, Rongxuan, Gyongy, Istvan, Gorman, Alistair, Patanwala, Sarrah M., Taneski, Filip, Henderson, Robert K.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Liu, Yiyang
Zhang, Rongxuan
Gyongy, Istvan
Gorman, Alistair
Patanwala, Sarrah M.
Taneski, Filip
Henderson, Robert K.
author_facet Liu, Yiyang
Zhang, Rongxuan
Gyongy, Istvan
Gorman, Alistair
Patanwala, Sarrah M.
Taneski, Filip
Henderson, Robert K.
contents We propose a fully asynchronous peak detection approach for SPAD-based direct time-of-flight (dToF) flash LiDAR, enabling pixel-wise event-driven depth acquisition without global synchronization. By allowing pixels to independently report depth once a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio is achieved, the method reduces latency, mitigates motion blur, and increases effective frame rate compared to frame-based systems. The framework is validated under two hardware implementations: an offline 256$\times$128 SPAD array with PC based processing and a real-time FPGA proof-of-concept prototype with 2.4$\upmu$s latency for on-chip integration. Experiments demonstrate robust depth estimation, reflectivity reconstruction, and dynamic event-based representation under both static and dynamic conditions. The results confirm that asynchronous operation reduces redundant background data and computational load, while remaining tunable via simple hyperparameters. These findings establish a foundation for compact, low-latency, event-driven LiDAR architectures suited to robotics, autonomous driving, and consumer applications. In addition, we have derived a semi-closed-form solution for the detection probability of the raw-peak finding based LiDAR systems that could benefit both conventional frame-based and proposed asynchronous LiDAR systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_19192
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An on-chip Pixel Processing Approach with 2.4μs latency for Asynchronous Read-out of SPAD-based dToF Flash LiDARs
Liu, Yiyang
Zhang, Rongxuan
Gyongy, Istvan
Gorman, Alistair
Patanwala, Sarrah M.
Taneski, Filip
Henderson, Robert K.
Image and Video Processing
We propose a fully asynchronous peak detection approach for SPAD-based direct time-of-flight (dToF) flash LiDAR, enabling pixel-wise event-driven depth acquisition without global synchronization. By allowing pixels to independently report depth once a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio is achieved, the method reduces latency, mitigates motion blur, and increases effective frame rate compared to frame-based systems. The framework is validated under two hardware implementations: an offline 256$\times$128 SPAD array with PC based processing and a real-time FPGA proof-of-concept prototype with 2.4$\upmu$s latency for on-chip integration. Experiments demonstrate robust depth estimation, reflectivity reconstruction, and dynamic event-based representation under both static and dynamic conditions. The results confirm that asynchronous operation reduces redundant background data and computational load, while remaining tunable via simple hyperparameters. These findings establish a foundation for compact, low-latency, event-driven LiDAR architectures suited to robotics, autonomous driving, and consumer applications. In addition, we have derived a semi-closed-form solution for the detection probability of the raw-peak finding based LiDAR systems that could benefit both conventional frame-based and proposed asynchronous LiDAR systems.
title An on-chip Pixel Processing Approach with 2.4μs latency for Asynchronous Read-out of SPAD-based dToF Flash LiDARs
topic Image and Video Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19192