High-resolution low-sidelobe laser ranging based on incoherent pulse compression

Daniel Kravitz*, Daniel Grodensky, Nadav Levanon, Avi Zadok

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

A technique for high-resolution laser detection and ranging with strong sidelobe suppression is experimentally demonstrated. This method relies on the transmission of a long unipolar sequence of intensity-modulated pulses, the incoherent direct detection of reflected echoes, and subsequent processing by proper digital filters at the receiver end. The obtained sidelobe suppression nearly replicates that of the bipolar sequences, even though the transmitted sequence is unipolar. Both the transmitted sequence and the receiver-end filter are derived from a bipolar code through a pulse position modulation algorithm. Mismatched filters are used for further sidelobe suppression. Due to the processing gain, ranging measurements are successfully performed at signal-to-noise ratios as low as -20 dB.A range change of 2.5 cm is accurately resolved. The proposed method provides the sidelobe suppression of a complex coherent receiver while using simple incoherent detection.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6320614
Pages (from-to)2119-2121
Number of pages3
JournalIEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Volume24
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012

Funding

FundersFunder number
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and DevelopmentI-2219-1978.10/2009

    Keywords

    • Laser detection and ranging (LADAR)
    • matched filtering
    • optical signal processing
    • pulse compression
    • ranging measurements

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