EMERGING COMMERCIAL LINEAR MODE AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ENHANCED DoD SPACE-BASED SATELLITE LASER RANGING

Resident space objects (RSO) are a serious threat to US space assets. Space laser ranging is one of the promising long range RSO detection modalities. Of particular interest is global shutter flash LIDAR (gsf-LIDAR) technology because of its ability to detect and measure the relative speed and location of an object. Existing gsf-LIDAR systems are limited detection ranges of 10km. Simulations have shown that the range performance can be extended to 50km using the existing LIDAR InGaAs APD detector technology. Two emerging APD technologies, AlInAsSb and HgCdTe have significantly improved gain and excess noise factor performance compared to InGaAs. These technologies can potentially extend the gsf-LIDAR range performance beyond 100km. The goal of this program is to perform gsf-LIDAR RSO range detection simulations using published AlInAsSb and HgCdTe detector parameters.