| Deciding factor | Laser triangulation | Time of flight |
|---|---|---|
| Working distance | 0.5 – 50 mm | 0.1 – 30 m |
| Resolution | 0.05 – 10 µm | 0.1 – 1 mm |
| Measuring spot size | Ø 20 – 300 µm | Ø 2 – 10 mm |
| Influence of surface tilt | strong on specular targets | comparatively weak |
| Ambient light handling | modulated emitter, optical filter | modulated emitter, time gating |
| Sampling rate | up to 10 kHz | up to 1 kHz |
Does a shiny surface break a triangulation reading?
A specular target reflects like a mirror, so a tilted shiny surface can throw the return beam outside the receiver field and the spot image disappears; response modes that prefer diffuse light, plus a chosen mounting angle, are how the reading is recovered.
Can time of flight reach micron resolution?
Pulse timing is limited by the speed of light and the electronics that start and stop the clock, so time-of-flight instruments are specified in sub-millimetre steps at best; micron-scale tasks are handled by triangulation geometry instead.
Decision rule
Choose laser triangulation while the target stays within a few tens of millimetres and micron-scale resolution is needed, because the short baseline turns tiny surface motion into large spot travel on the detector and the geometry itself carries the resolution; switch to time of flight once distance dominates, where the same geometry can no longer hold the resolution and only pulse timing remains usable.
All figures on this page are illustrative sample values, not measured specifications.