Solid State Imaging LADAR Photoreceiver with Internal Detector Gain

A lightweight, low-cost, internal detector gain, solid state imaging LADAR receiveris proposed. This photodetector has the advantage of increased optical gain withdecreased incident power. This detector characteristic is attractive for LADARapplications with weak target signals. In phase I, the LADAR specific detector willbe modeled and tested. In Phase II, the semiconductor-based internal gainphotodetector will be combined to an imaging LADAR processing circuit using aninnovative hybrid integration technique, in order to demonstrate a solid stateimaging LADAR receiver with internal detector gain.Imaging LADAR systems have many commercial applications including the product andfacility inspections in the forestry, automotive, and steel industries. In addition,the area of robotic vision could use imaging LADAR to determine depth perception toallow a machine to accurately recognize and identify any object within itsfield-of-view. The above industries would benefit from a low-cost imaging LADARreceiver.