Direct Detection Ladar Pulse Processing

ABSTRACT: Direct Detection LADAR technology is a utilized in a wide range of critical government and commercial applications including 3-D imaging, aerial mapping, weapons seekers, ISR, EW and navigation systems, atmospheric study, and ground transportation. The precision of range and intensity measurements made LADAR systems is limited by the non-ideal characteristics of lasers, detectors, amplifiers, optics, and power supplies. Manufacturing and calibrating these analog components for consistent, accurate performance is a difficult and expensive task. A more cost effective and robust solution may be to develop more sophisticated DSP algorithms to compensate for non-ideal component behavior, component variations, and time-varying behavior. The need to detect objects with a wide range of reflectivity and dispersion characteristics also requires a very wide dynamic range. Recent advances in ADC conversion technology allow DSP algorithms to directly process linear direct detection waveforms with pulse widths on the order of nanoseconds. Direct access to the pulse waveform allows DSP algorithms to perform more accurate parameter estimation as well as compensate for the non-ideal characteristics of lasers, detectors, and optical components. BENEFIT: Anticipated benefits include: Improved 3-D LADAR imaging capability and improved pulse measurement accuracy. Potential commercial applications include: 3-D imaging, ground vehicle navigation, atmospheric sensing, law enforcement, aerial imaging