Miniaturized Self-Mixing Laser Radar

Recent progress in self-mixing laser Doppler sensors has proven that very good performance can be achieved with extremely simple means. Demonstrations to date include hard-target speed measurements to several hundred meters with scalability to km ranges, single micron sized aerosol particle detection, and two-element array-sensing. Based on experimental results and simulations, we believe that detection of low reflectivity targets at km ranges is feasible with systems that may in large quantities reach unit costs below $1,000. The technology is also flexible enough that both range and Doppler measurements are feasible. We propose to evaluate implementations of self-mixing sensor systems for Doppler and range retrieval under realistic Air Force field conditions. A key part of the Phase I/II program is the development of extremely simple binary data processing techniques, which point to implementation of single-chip signal processors. Successful demonstration of the proposed sensors has enormous commercial appeal for a number of applications. Large scale commercialization of the technology would lead to obvious cost benefits for military systems, since the required hardware is essentially the same.