A 4 a peak current and 2 ns pulse width CMOS laser diode driver for high measurement rate applications

Abstract

A single chip integrated laser diode driver has been designed and fabricated in a high-voltage 0.35μm 50V CMOS technology for pulsed time-of-flight (TOF) laser ranging applications. A peak current and pulse width of approximately 4 A and 2ns, respectively, can be achieved through a low ohmic load in a driver structure with four parallel switching devices. With a commercial pulsed laser diode a peak optical power of 2.3 W with a pulse width of 1.5 ns was measured. Measurements showed also that a pulsing rate of at least 1 MHz is achievable. With this pulse rate the current consumption from 5.5 V and 50 V supplies is 9 mA and 5 mA, respectively.