A new time discrimination circuit for the 3D imaging lidar

Chunsheng Hu; Zongsheng Huang; Shiqiao Qin; Xingshu Wang

doi:10.1117/12.974437

25 October 2012 A new time discrimination circuit for the 3D imaging Lidar

Chunsheng Hu, Zongsheng Huang, Shiqiao Qin, Xingshu Wang

Proceedings Volume 8538, Earth Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing/GIS Applications III; 85381H (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.974437
Event: SPIE Remote Sensing, 2012, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

In order to enhance the time discrimination precision in the 3D imaging lidar, we propose a new time discrimination circuit, which improves both the delayer and the attenuator in the previous CFD (Constant Fraction Discriminator) circuit. The proposed circuit mainly includes a delayer, a low-pass filter, and a comparator. The delayer is implemented with a series of inductors and capacitors, which has some advantages: low signal distortion, small volume, easy adjustment, etc. The low-pass filter attenuates the signal amplitude and broadens the signal width, as well as reduces the noise by decreasing the equivalent noise bandwidth, and increases the signal slope at the discrimination time. Therefore, the time discrimination error is reduced significantly. This paper introduces the proposed circuit in detail, carries out a theoretical analysis for the noise and time discrimination error in the proposed circuit and compares them with the previous CFD circuit. The comparison results show that the proposed circuit can reduce the time discrimination error by about 50% under the same noise level. In addition, some experiments have been carried out to test the performances of the circuit. The experiments show that the time delay of the circuit is about 14ns, the time discrimination error is less than 150 ps when the voltage SNR ranges from 18.2 to 81.8, and the time discrimination error is less than 100 ps when the signal amplitude ranges from 0.2 V to 1.86 V. The tested time discrimination error is well in accordance with the theoretical calculation.

Citation Download Citation

Chunsheng Hu, Zongsheng Huang, Shiqiao Qin, and Xingshu Wang "A new time discrimination circuit for the 3D imaging Lidar", Proc. SPIE 8538, Earth Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing/GIS Applications III, 85381H (25 October 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.974437

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