| US 7,485,862 B2 | ||
| Time-space multiplexed LADAR | ||
| Yochay Danziger, Kfar Vradim (Israel) | ||
| Assigned to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Haifa (Israel) | ||
| Filed on Jan. 29, 2007, as Appl. No. 11/627,996. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 173420 (IL), filed on Jan. 29, 2006; application No. 173818 (IL), filed on Feb. 20, 2006; and application No. 174111 (IL), filed on Mar. 05, 2006. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2007/0177841 A1, Aug. 02, 2007 | ||
| Int. Cl. G01J 5/02 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 250—339.1 | 24 Claims |
| 1. A LADAR system comprising:
(a) a detector optical arrangement defining a current optical field of view;
(b) an illumination subsystem configured for transmitting pulsed illumination at different times to each of a plurality of
illumination sub-regions of said current optical field of view without moving parts such that each of said illumination sub-regions
is illuminated at a different time from others of said illumination sub-regions; and
(c) a detection subsystem including one or more detectors deployed for detecting reflected illumination from a corresponding
one or more detection sub-region of said current optical field of view,
wherein each of said one or more detection sub-regions overlaps a plurality of said illumination sub-regions, an overlap of
each of said illumination sub-regions with said detection sub-region defining a LADAR image pixel of resolution finer than
said detection sub-region,and wherein the pulsed illumination transmitted to each of said illumination sub-regions is transmitted from the tip of at
least one optical fiber, each of said optical fibers defining at least part of a waveguide which includes an optical amplifier
deployed for amplifying pulses of said pulsed illumination prior to transmission.
|