SPAD lidar system with binned pixels

An autonomous vehicle, comprising:

• a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) lidar system, comprising:
• a transmitter configured to transmit a transmitted electromagnetic signal into an environment nearby the SPAD lidar system;
• and
• a receiver configured to receive a received electromagnetic signal from the environment nearby the SPAD lidar system, a portion of the received electromagnetic signal corresponding to the transmitted electromagnetic signal, the receiver comprising:
• a SPAD sensor array comprising SPAD pixels, wherein the received electromagnetic signal is inputted to the SPAD pixels of the SPAD sensor array;
• and
• a binning system configured to combine outputs of groups of the SPAD pixels to generate combined outputs for the groups such that the binning system is configured to:
• combine outputs of a first group of the SPAD pixels by performing a first two-dimensional convolution of digital outputs of the SPAD pixels in the first group to interpolate a first combined output for the first group, the first combined output representing an interpolated value for a first center SPAD pixel in the first group;
• assign the first combined output to the first center SPAD pixel in the first group;
• combine outputs of a second group of the SPAD pixels by performing a second two-dimensional convolution of digital outputs of the SPAD pixels in the second group to interpolate a second combined output for the second group, the second combined output representing an interpolated value for a second center SPAD pixel in the second group;
• and
• assign the second combined output to the second center SPAD pixel in the second group,
• wherein the first group and the second group are overlapping such that a subset of the SPAD pixels are included in both the first group and the second group, and wherein the binning system combines the outputs of the first group of the SPAD pixels and combines the outputs of the second group of the SPAD pixels to recover a full native resolution of the SPAD sensor array.

A method of operating a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) lidar system, comprising:

• receiving outputs of SPAD pixels of a SPAD sensor array of the SPAD lidar system;
• combining outputs of a first group of the SPAD pixels by performing a first two-dimensional convolution of digital outputs of the SPAD pixels in the first group to interpolate a first combined output for the first group, the first combined output representing an interpolated value for a first center SPAD pixel in the first group;
• assigning the first combined output to the first center SPAD pixel in the first group;
• combining outputs of a second group of the SPAD pixels by performing a second two-dimensional convolution of digital outputs of the SPAD pixels in the second group to interpolate a second combined output for the second group, the second combined output representing an interpolated value for a second center SPAD pixel in the second group;
• assigning the second combined output to the second center SPAD pixel in the second group;
• and
• generating lidar data based on the first combined output and the second combined output assigned to the SPAD pixels.