Compact 625-channel scannerless imaging laser radar receiver

In 1995, under a USAF SBIR Phase I program, Burns Engineering Corporation investigated the application of new integrated photonics technologies and hybrid manufacturing processes to the miniaturization of an imaging laser radar receiver which has complete receiving and range counting circuitry for each pixel in a 25-by-25 element avalanche photodiode array. The `parallel multichannel' receiver (PMR) is a compact, robust, and modular laser radar subsystem which can produce high resolution 3D range imagery at 1 kHz frame rates without the use of a scanner. The modular PMR is attractive as a common module solution for a wide variety of high performance, low cost, autonomous laser-guided seeker applications. The system described illustrates one approach to integrating and packaging high-density photonic arrays and associated signal processing electronics to yield a high-performance imaging laser radar receiver using existing technology. Burns Engineering has been selected by the USAF to build a benchtop prototype, proof-of-concept demonstrator in a follow-on, SBIR Phase II program.