Question About VL53L8CH FOV Adjustment and Resolution Enhancement

[kgb]

Hello everyone,

I am currently working with the VL53L8CH sensor, and it's impressive what can be achieved with it. However, I would like to know if there is any way to reduce, modify, or adjust the sensor's field of view while maintaining its resolution (8x8).

Then, in certain specific use cases, I would like to increase the resolution, though I believe 64 (8x8) is the maximum. If increasing the resolution isn't possible, is there perhaps another way to reduce the field of view to focus on a smaller area while preserving accuracy?

[John E KVAM]

Well, there is a way - but you can't do it.

When we invented the VL53L7, we took the L5 and swapped the optics. 

But we WIDENED the FoV and did not narrow it down. Narrowing it down increases the intensity and will make the device non eye safe. So please don't do that unless you have a laser expert test your results.  

We are considering creating a device with more resolution, but it limits the distance at which the device can 'see'.

The trouble is we build these things for the cell-phone industry. And it's not obvious that anyone wants more resolution in their cell phone. it would be nice to have, but giving up range is hard to do. And if you divide up each zone into 4, fewer SPADs (photon detectors) are available for each of those smaller zones. And that leads to less accuracy. 

So, it's a tradeoff. 

Early next year we are releasing the L9. It has 2300 zones. Can you wait for that?

- john