ActLight, the Swiss technology firm known for its best in class signal-to-noise ratio photodiodes, announced that the continuous development of its patented low voltage single photon sensitivity technology has reached outstanding results.
The single photon devices currently used in smartphones’ Lidar scanners to create the depth map of the surrounding space and enable AR apps are very sensitive to ambient light and they are blinded in presence bright light: this problem is now solved with the tunability of ActLight Dynamic PhotoDiode.
In fact, in addition of being capable of measuring absolute depth in low light thanks to its single photon sensitivity, ActLight technology keep depth measurements accuracy in bright light conditions by tuning the photodiode sensitivity to the adequate level and preventing it to be blinded. The tuning is performed by adjusting the bias voltage on the photodiode.
The other unique feature of the Dynamic PhotoDiode is its low voltage operating mode (1V to 2V) which, combined with its tunability and small size, makes it suitable for a true low power Lidar system.
“The fast adoption of LiDAR in smartphones has created a big demand in terms of light sensors performance improvement and we are in talk with the major players of the LiDAR supply chain and their customers to bring this technology to market,” said Serguei Okhonin, Co-founder & CEO at ActLight. “With its tunable sensitivity and low voltage, our Dynamic PhotoDiode is unique and well positioned to take depth sensing to the next level.”