To process the laser pulse echo signal with wide dynamic range, an analog front end with adaptive gain control technology was designed. By step adjustment for the transimpedance gain of the transimpedance amplifier, the input current and the output voltage were approximately linear in the range of 1 μA~1 mA. The proposed self-trigged and enabled method could continuously receive echo signals without external clearing signal. A novel differential shift time discrimination circuit was proposed, which could effectively reduce the walking error. The circuit was designed in a 0.11 μm CMOS process. The post-simulation results showed that the -3 dB bandwidth of the circuit was 530 MHz, the maximum transimpedance gain was 103 dBΩ, the equivalent input noise current spectral density was 6.47 pA·Hz-1/2@350 MHz, the input dynamic range was 60 dB, and the power consumption was less than 100 mW. The analog front end circuit design was suitable for time-of-flight pulse LIDAR.