High-resolution solid-state LIDAR transmitter

A solid-state Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) transmitter comprising:

• a) a first transmit optical system comprising a first laser array and a first microlens array, a relative position of the first laser array and the first microlens array of the first transmit optical system configured to project a first plurality of optical beams generated by the first laser array to form a plurality of first pixel spots comprising a first spot size and a first pixel pitch at a target distance, thereby defining a first transmit optical system spatial resolution;
• and
• b) a second transmit optical system comprising a second laser array and a second microlens array, a relative position of the second laser array and the second microlens array of the second transmit optical system configured to project a second plurality of optical beams generated by the second laser array to form a plurality of second pixel spots comprising a second spot size and a second pixel pitch at the target distance, wherein the first transmit optical system and the second transmit optical system are positioned such that a total field-of-view generated by the first transmit optical system is offset by less than one pixel field-of-view from a total field-of-view generated by the second transmit optical system such that the plurality of first pixel spots is interleaved with the plurality of second pixel spots at the target range and wherein the first spot size and the second spot size are both smaller than a pixel pitch of the first transmit optical system so as to produce two separated pixel spots within a single pixel pitch of the first transmit optical system at the target distance such that a spatial resolution of the solid state LIDAR transmitter is greater than the first transmit optical system spatial resolution.