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Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS)

Transistor pairs convert returning light into voltage across thousands to millions of individual pixels. More light means higher voltage.

CMOS-based sensors typically use triangulation to calculate distance.

This approach delivers high resolution in a small footprint, but fails if the target angle or surface condition prevents sufficient light from returning to the receiver array.

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Time-of-Flight (ToF) 

TOF operates in one of two ways. 

1. Pulse: A laser fires into space, reflects off a target, and returns to the receiver. The sensor calculates distance by measuring elapsed time against the speed of light (3 × 10⁸ m/s). 
2. Phase-shift: The sensor measures how much the phase of a continuous modulated light wave shifts upon return. That shift is directly proportional to distance. 

Unlike triangulation, neither ToF method requires the returning light to land at a specific geometric position. Therefore, ToF works at more angles than CMOS.