Multi-pulse detection technique to improve the timing/range resolution in a scanning LADAR system

The temporal resolution of a LADAR system is primarily decided by the pulse duration of the laser source, response time of the detector and the resolution of the processing electronics. A combination of the timing jitter associated with these components can deteriorate the system performance by reducing the range resolution of the complete system. The range information in a LADAR system is obtained by measuring the time-of-flight using an electronic time-to-amplitude converter or a multi-channel analyzer. In this paper, we discuss a multi-pulse detection scheme which can be utilized to improve the range resolution of a LADAR system, and allow us to determine the target range with higher accuracy. We present results showing improvement by a factor of three in the range resolution of the scanning LADAR system using this scheme in our laboratory.