System for emulating an environment for testing a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system

A system for emulating an over-the-air environment for testing a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) unit under test (UUT), the system comprising:

• a lens system configured to receive light from the LiDAR UUT;
• a plurality of optical processing chains coupled to the lens system, wherein each optical processing chain comprises:
• an optical fiber coupled to the lens system and configured to receive laser pulses from the LiDAR UUT through the lens system;
• an in-phase quadrature (IQ) frequency modulator configured to modulate a frequency of the received laser pulses;
• an optical time delay configured to time delay the received laser pulses;
• and
• an optical amplitude modulator configured to modulate an amplitude of the received laser pulses,
• wherein each optical processing chain is configured to transmit the frequency shifted, time delayed and amplitude modulated laser pulses to the LiDAR UUT, and wherein the frequency shifted, time delayed and amplitude modulated laser pulses emulate the over-the-air environment.