NOVEL 3D-VISION SYSTEMS BASED ON LAYOUT OPTIMIZED PMD-STRUCTURES

The focal point of the investigations described in this paper is at th e development of new time-of-flight (TOF) SD-vision systems based on a novel inherently mixing photo detector the Photonic Mixer Device (PMD ). PMD-chips will enable totally new concepts of TPF-line cameras and TOF-matrix cameras that small, robust, precise, fast, and of lowest co st that they will open the door to a wealth of new applications and so lutions in automated manufacturing and quality control, robotics, traf fic control, and navigation, material handling, identification, securi ty, and communication. Firstly the paper describes the basic principle of PMD-operation which has already been proved by experimental result s of PMD-test chips realized in CMOS-technology. Thereafter some new o ptimized PMD-structures and transmitter/receiver-concepts are introduc ed offering the unique specifications.