Lidar system

A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system, comprising:

• a coherent light source that generates a frequency modulated optical signal comprising a series of optical chirps, wherein the coherent light source has a linewidth of about 100 kHz or less;
• a scanning assembly that (a) transmits the series of optical chirps in a scan pattern across a scanning region and (b) receives a plurality of reflected optical chirps corresponding to the transmitted optical chirps that have reflected off one or more objects located within the scanning region;
• a photodetector that mixes the reflected optical chirps with a local oscillation (LO) reference signal comprising a series of LO reference chirps;
• and
• an electronic data analysis assembly that processes digital data derived from the reflected optical chirps and the LO reference chirps mixed at the photodetector to generate distance data associated with each of the reflected optical chirps.

A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor, comprising:

• a single coherent light source that generates a frequency modulated optical signal comprising a series of optical chirps, wherein the coherent light source has a linewidth of 100 kHz or less;
• a single scanner that (a) transmits the series of optical chirps in a scan pattern across a scanning region at an optical power in a range of 10 mW to 3 W and (b) receives a plurality of reflected optical chirps corresponding to the transmitted optical chirps that have reflected off one or more objects located within the scanning region;
• a photodetector that mixes the reflected optical chirps with a local oscillation (LO) reference signal comprising a series of LO reference chirps, wherein the coherent light source generates the LO reference chirps;
• and
• an electronic data analysis assembly that processes digital data derived from the reflected optical chirps and the LO reference chirps mixed at the photodetector to generate distance data associated with each of the reflected optical chirps.