Afbr-S50-Rd: Reference Design Application Note; Introduction; Overview - Broadcom AFBR-S50 Reference Design

AFBR-S50 Time-of-Flight (ToF) Sensor Family Application Note

AFBR-S50-RD: Reference Design Application Note

1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

This application note describes a reference design example for controlling a sensor from the Broadcom
Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor family. It helps the designer realize an easy-to-implement subsystem, which consists of a ToF
Sensor and an MCU, featuring a minimalistic interface footprint.
NOTE: For more information about Broadcom, see https://www.broadcom.com/. For more information about the AFBR-
S50 Time-of-Flight sensor family, see
sensors.
The reference design (referred to as AFBF-S50-RD in the following text) includes a 32-bit MCU and a VCSEL-based ToF
sensor (Laser Class 1 eye safety), mounted on a compact-sized PCB, measuring only 16.5 mm × 18 mm in size.
The AFBR-S50-RD is composed of the main components shown in the following table.
Hardware Design – PCB
AFBR-S50 ToF sensor module (15-pin footprint)

Microcontroller MKL17Z256VFM4 from NXP (QFN-32)

AFBF-S50-RD connector (11-pin header)

a. UART interface implemented in the current firmware version (I2C, SPI available but not implemented).
Figure 1: AFBR-S50-RD Reference Design Size Compared to a 1 Euro Coin
This document provides the following information about the AFBR-S50-RD:
All information that is required to rebuild the reference design based on the MKL17Z256VFM4 MCU.

Instructions on how to integrate the AFBR-S50 Time-of-Flight and an Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU into a closed system that

provides the full interface to external devices (Explorer App SW implementation).
– The complete software solution is included, using the AFBR-S50 API and a reference Serial Communications
Interface (SCI), provided as a source (the Explorer App [API Demo] section in the AFBR-S50 SDK: Argus API
Reference Manual). The latter can be directly used or altered to the needs of the designer.
– Connection to the PC using the GUI application.
– Working in an embedded environment.
Broadcom
https://www.broadcom.com/products/optical-sensors/time-of-flight-3d-
Firmware Explorer App for MKL17Z256VFM4:

For connecting with the AFBR-S50 Explorer GUI application
Firmware Example App for MKL17Z256VFM4:

Sending measurement results over the UART interface.
Printing the measurement results in the serial terminal.
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a
Software Design – API
Reference Design
AFBR-S50
AFBR-S50-RD-AN100
4