logo
logo
Sign in

ToF Technology Explained

avatar
Alanlin
ToF Technology Explained

TOF is short for Time of flight, literally translated as the meaning of flight time. Time-of-flight technology can be understood in a broad sense as measuring the time it takes for an object, particle or wave to fly a certain distance in a fixed medium (medium/distance/time are all known or measurable), so as to further understand some properties of ions or media Technology.

 

1. What is ToF

 

TOF is the abbreviation of Time of Flight technology, that is, the sensor emits modulated near-infrared light, which is reflected after encountering an object. The sensor calculates the time difference or phase difference between light emission and reflection to convert the distance of the photographed scene to produce Depth information, combined with traditional camera shooting, can present the three-dimensional outline of the object in a topographic map with different colors representing different distances.

 

2. How ToF works

 

The ToF sensor measures the time required for light to travel a certain distance in a medium. Generally, this is a measurement of the time it takes for the pulsed light to reach the object and reflect back to the ToF sensor. The ToF camera uses the ToF measurement principle (ToF image sensor) to determine the distance between the camera and the object or the surrounding environment, and generates depth images or 3D images through the measured points. ToF camera applications include laser-based non-scanning lidar imaging systems , motion sensing and tracking, object detection and terrain mapping used in machine vision and autonomous driving.

The principle of TOF measurement is as follows. The emitted infrared light is reflected by the object to be measured and then returns to the sensor. The built-in timer records the round-trip time, and then the distance can be calculated. It sounds like it's no different from the ultrasonic ranging. But it is not the case. Ultrasonic distance measurement requires relatively high requirements for reflective objects. Objects with small areas such as lines and cones cannot be detected. TOF infrared distance measurement can completely overcome this problem. At the same time, TOF distance measurement accuracy is high. Long distance and quick response. This technology is basically similar to the principle of the 3D laser sensor, except that the 3D laser sensor scans point by point, while the TOF camera obtains the depth information of the entire image at the same time. But how to achieve depth measurement in the above application areas? Below, three methods for determining distance by measuring flight time are introduced. One is to emit pulsed light and measure the time interval between which they return after reflection; the second is to modulate the amplitude of the light source and record the phase shift of the reflected light wave; the third is to emit a square wave with a duty cycle of 50% and record the arrival within a specific interval The amount of returned light.

 

3.Role and use of ToF

 

1 Ranging

The first device to apply this principle is the ultrasonic rangefinder.

The ToF ranging method is a two-way ranging technology, which mainly uses the flight time of the signal to and from two asynchronous transceivers (or reflected surface) to measure the distance between nodes. Traditional ranging technology is divided into two-way ranging technology and one-way ranging technology. In a better signal level modulation or in a non-line-of-sight environment, the estimated result based on the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) ranging method is ideal; in a line-of-sight environment, based on ToF distance estimation. The method can make up for the shortcomings of the distance estimation method based on RSSI.

The ToF ranging method has two key constraints: one is that the sending device and the receiving device must always be synchronized; the other is the length of the signal transmission time provided by the receiving device. In order to achieve clock synchronization, the ToF ranging method uses a clock offset to solve the clock synchronization problem. Intersil's latest ToF signal processing IC-ISL29501 solution is a typical ToF solution, which can be used in all lighting conditions and achieves miniaturization and low power consumption for battery applications. Because Intersil's patented signal processor technology uses phase-based ToF to deal with the influence of ambient light around the detection object.

2 Microelectronics

Time-of-flight techniques can be used to estimate properties related to electron migration. At first, this principle was used to measure low-conductivity thin films, and then it was further extended to common semiconductors. Using a large amount of electric charge excited by laser or voltage pulse, this technology can also be used in metal-insulator-metal (MDM) structures or organic field effect transistors.

3 Medicine

In the field of magnetic resonance angiography (Magnetic resonance angiography, MRA), the time-of-flight method is a major basic technology. MRA can be used to determine symptoms such as aneurysms, vascular stenosis, or in certain anatomical fields.

4 Mass spectrometry

In the field of time-of-flight mass spectrometry, different ions can be accelerated to the same kinetic energy by an electric field, and their speed is determined by the mass-to-charge ratio. Therefore, the time-of-flight technique can be used to measure the speed to get the mass-to-charge ratio, and further get information such as kinetic energy.

 

More about ToF technology

collect
0
avatar
Alanlin
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more