Linear FM chirp waveform for a LADAR transceiver
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorMaurice J. Halmos
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems for generating a high bandwidth linear FM chirp for a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) transceiver is described herein. The LADAR transceiver includes an array of laser sources configured to generate a series of pulses with each pulse offset in frequency by a respective frequency offset from a previous pulse and a subsequent pulse in the series of pulses. A ladder signal can be generated from the series of pulses and modulated with a modulation signal having a modulation bandwidth corresponding to the frequency offset between each pulse to generate the linear chirp signal. The linear chirp signal can have a chirp bandwidth corresponding to the number of laser sources in an array and a modulation bandwidth of the modulation signal.
Claims21
A method for generating a linear frequency modulated (LFM) chirp for a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) transceiver, the method comprising:
- generating a ladder signal from a series of pulses by an array of laser sources based on a timing sequence, the array of laser sources including different types of lasers, wherein each pulse is offset in frequency by a respective frequency offset from a previous pulse and a subsequent pulse in the series of pulses;
- and
- modulating the ladder signal with a modulation signal having a modulation bandwidth corresponding to the frequency offset between each pulse in the series of pulses to generate a linear chirp signal corresponding to the modulated ladder signal,
- wherein the modulation signal is synchronized to the timing sequence of the ladder signal.
A laser detection and ranging (LADAR) transceiver comprising:
- an array of laser sources coupled to provide a series of pulses to a transmission channel and generate a ladder signal, wherein each pulse is separated in frequency by a frequency offset from a previous pulse and a subsequent pulse in the series of pulses and the array of laser sources including different types of lasers;
- a modulation driver coupled to provide a modulation signal to the transmission channel and generate a modulated ladder signal, wherein the modulation signal has a modulation bandwidth corresponding to the frequency offset between each pulse in the series of pulses, wherein the modulation signal is synchronized to a timing sequence of the ladder signal;
- and
- an optical bench coupled to receive the modulated ladder signal and generate a linear chirp signal, wherein the linear chirp signal has a chirp bandwidth corresponding to the number of laser sources in the array and the modulation bandwidth of the modulation signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.