The sensor contains a very tiny laser source, and a matching sensor. The VL53L0X can detect the "time of flight", or how long the laser light has taken to bounce back to the sensor. Since it uses a very narrow light source, it is good for determining distance of only the surface directly in front of it. Range is roughly 50 to 1200 mm, and it also includes a lux sensor.
The sensor contains a very tiny laser source, and a matching sensor. The VL6180X can detect the "time of flight", or how long the laser light has taken to bounce back to the sensor. Since it uses a very narrow light source, it is good for determining distance of only the surface directly in front of it. Range is 5 to 200 mm. This is new STEMMA QT version of this breakout.
Simple Time-of-Flight laser ranging sensor, range up to 2 m (depending on light intensity and object reflectance), 1 mm resolution, +/-3-10% accuracy, I2C communication, working voltage 2.6-5.5 V, size 25x12.2 mm.