From May 19th to 22nd, 2024, the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) was held in Singapore. The conference received 1497 submissions from 50 countries and regions, of which 880 were accepted.Professor Wang Chao's team from the School of Optoelectronics at Huazhong University of Science and Technology's latest research achievement in the field of LiDAR chips, "A New Balanced Detection Based Optoelectronic Front End Circuit for FMCW LiDAR System," won the Best Conference Paper in the Sensor Direction (Huazhong University of Science and Technology was selected for the first time). Professor Wang Chao from the School of Optoelectronics is the corresponding author of the paper, Master's student Zhu Wenming is the first author of the paper, and the School of Optoelectronics at Huazhong University of Science and Technology is the first completion unit of the paper.
Frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar has received widespread attention in fields such as autonomous driving due to its high ranging accuracy, large ranging range, and anti-interference capability. However, the range of traditional laser ranging systems is limited by the noise of the photoelectric conversion interface and parasitic capacitance. In addition, the loss of laser signal power under long-distance ranging also poses a demand for high gain and large dynamic range in electrical receiving circuits.This article proposes a new type of LiDAR chip system based on silicon-based balanced detectors, which improves the photoelectric detection sensitivity through photoelectric fusion design and eliminates redundant photodiodes with significant noise and parasitic contributions in traditional ranging systems to expand the ranging range. The proposed analog front-end circuit chip uses a preamplifier to convert photocurrent to voltage signals, and a two-stage post stage variable gain amplifier to achieve dynamic range expansion.This work is fabricated using a 40nm process, with an area of only 0.086 mm2 and a working voltage of 1.1 V. At a signal bandwidth of 132MHz, the maximum gain of the circuit can reach 100 dB Ω, with a dynamic range of 66.2 dB. The design specifications have reached the leading level in the international academic community. This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Open Project of Wuhan Optoelectronics National Research Center, in collaboration with Professor Yu's team and Associate Professor Lu Zhenghao's team from Suzhou University.
The International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) is a flagship conference organized by the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, which has a history of 75 years. It is one of the top conferences in the field of integrated circuits and systems. Since its establishment in 1968, ISCAS has established a history of over fifty years and a sustained reputation as one of the world's leading forums for researchers in the fields of circuit and system theory, design, and implementation.Professor Wang Chao from the School of Optics and Electronic Information at Huazhong University of Science and Technology is mainly engaged in research in the fields of new artificial intelligence processor chip design, optoelectronic fusion intelligent sensor chip design, etc. He has led multiple projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Projects, National Key Projects, National Leading Enterprise Horizontal Projects, and Wuhan Science and Technology Major Special Project "Neck" Technology Research and Development Project. He has published more than 90 international journals and conferences on integrated circuits and systems SCI/EI, including TCAS-I/II, TBioCAS, JETCAS, CAS-M, ISSCC, A-SSCC, etc., and has publicly/authorized more than 10 national/international invention patents. He has also carried out multiple process nodes such as 22/28/40/55/110/180nm. Chip design and chip fabrication work.
Source: Sensor Expert Network