Performance of an FM/cw prototype ladar using a 32-element linear self-mixing detector array

William Ruff; Keith Aliberti; John Dammann; Mark Giza; Paul Shen; Barry Stann

doi:10.1117/12.485873

Translator Disclaimer

21 August 2003 Performance of an FM/cw prototype ladar using a 32-element linear self-mixing detector array

William Ruff, Keith Aliberti, John Dammann, Mark Giza, Paul Shen, Barry Stann

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5086, Laser Radar Technology and Applications VIII; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.485873
Event: AeroSense 2003, 2003, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is investigating a ladar architecture based on FM/cw radar principles, whereby the range information is contained in the low-frequency mixing product derived by mixing a reference ultra-high frequency (UHF) chirp with an optically detected, time-delayed UHF chirp scattered from a target. ARL is also investigating the use of metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) detectors as unique self-mixing detectors, which have the ability to internally detect and down-convert the modulated optical signals. ARL has recently incorporated a 1x32 element linear MSM self-mixing detector array into a prototype FM/cw ladar system and performed a series of characterization and outdoor image collection experiments using this prototype. This paper discusses the basic performance of the prototype system and presents some fundamental measurements as well as ladar imagery taken on the ARL Adelphi campus.

Citation Download Citation

William Ruff, Keith Aliberti, John Dammann, Mark Giza, Paul Shen, and Barry Stann "Performance of an FM/cw prototype ladar using a 32-element linear self-mixing detector array", Proc. SPIE 5086, Laser Radar Technology and Applications VIII, (21 August 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.485873

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE