Existing Ladar systems are based upon either pulsed, time-of-flight measurement techniques or a coherent, heterodyned detection scheme. Time-of-flight measurement systems are effective, but typically suffer from limited spatial resolution and low update rates. Heterodyning techniques offer many advantages including increased signal to noise ratio and better immunity to camouflage, but are prone to blinding from solar background or intentional optical jamming. Coherent Ladar approaches have been further limited to very slow update rates due to the need to capture multiple intensity images in order to compute a single range image. This limitation has made it nearly impossible to apply Ladar imaging technology to dynamic targets. SMD proposes the development of a low-cost imaging Ladar that is capable of capturing dynamic Ladar imagery at up to 20 FPS. Both range and intensity imagery is provided at 256x256 spatial resolution, with range resolution of 6 inches or better. The proposed technique is a unique form of a coherent imaging Ladar system that measures range by modulation of both the source illumination and intensifier gain. Solar blinding is eliminated through novel gating of the CCD detector array during the range imaging process. The flexibility of the sensor is such that it can be easily adapted to include an electronically programmable filter for multi-spectral or polarization state imagery for diverse applications including standard range measurement, atmospheric constituency information, and direct wind detection.
Keywords: EBCCD, IMAGING, LADAR
