Performance of a new eye-safe 3D-laser-radar APD line scanner

This paper presents first results of the performance of a recently developed 3D imaging laser radar sensor, working in the short wave infrared (SWIR) at 1.5 mm. It consists of a novel Cadmium Mercury Telluride (CMT) linear detector array with 384x1 APD elements at a pitch of 25 mm, developed by AIM Infrarot Module GmbH. The APD elements were designed to work in the linear (non-Geiger) mode. Each pixel is capable to provide time of flight measurement, and, due to the linear detection mode, allowing the detection of three successive echoes. We discuss various sensor concepts regarding possible applications and their dependence on system parameters like field of view, frame rate, spatial resolution and range of operation.