Receiver characteristics of laser altimeters with avalanche photodiodes

Author

Sun, Xiaoli ; Davidson, Fredric M. ; Boutsikaris, Leo ; Abshire, James B.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD, USA

Volume

28

Issue

1

fYear

1992

fDate

1/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

268

Lastpage

275

Abstract

The receiver characteristics of a laser altimeter system containing an avalanche photodiode photodetector are analyzed using the Gaussian approximation, the saddlepoint approximation, and a nearly exact analysis. The last two methods are shown to yield very similar results except when the background noise is extremely low and the probability of false alarm is high. However, the Gaussian approximation method is shown to cause significant errors even under relatively high levels of background noise and received signal energy

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; altimeters; approximation theory; avalanche photodiodes; measurement by laser beam; optical radar; photodetectors; probability; random noise; Gaussian approximation; avalanche photodiodes; background noise; errors; false alarm; laser altimeters; nearly exact analysis; photodetector; probability; receiver characteristics; saddlepoint approximation; Avalanche photodiodes; Background noise; Gaussian approximation; Laser noise; Laser radar; NASA; Photodetectors; Pulse measurements; Pump lasers; Radar detection;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9251

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/7.135452

Filename

135452