SWELL: Single-Photon-Sensitive Waveform Enhanced and Lightweight LIDAR

nbsp;Nalu Scientific LLC (NSL) proposes to design and build the Single-photon-sensitive Waveform Enhanced and Lightweight Lidar (SWELL). This novel device will improve upon current Lidar technology by being low-cost, low-power, and highly compact. nbsp;This will be accomplished by leveraging NSLrsquo;s extremely high timing precision waveform sampling and digital integration technology. NSL has developed several application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with built-in digital signal processing and control interfaces that could make extremely precise time of flight (ToF) single-photon measurements of back-scattered laser light pulses for use in orbiting or aerial LIDAR applications. nbsp;The integration of sampling and feature extraction onto a single ASIC will reduce the required printed circuit board (PCB) complexity and eliminate the need for an expensive and power-hungry Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This will save power, space, and cost for implementing high-precision LIDAR systems.