A Lidar system, photonic chip and method of detecting an object. The photonic chip includes a laser and one or more photodetectors. The laser generates a transmitted light beam. The one or more photodetectors are receptive to a reflected light beam that is a reflection of the transmitted light beam from an object and generate an electrical signal as output in response to the reflected light beam signal. An amplifier is configured to amplify a signal related to the reflected light beam to amplify the output signal of the one or more photodetectors. A processor determines a parameter of the object from the amplified output signal.