A single-shot laser rangefinder with quadrature reference signals sampling

In the present work, we propose a new method for single-shot measurement laser rangefinders. In this method two sinusoidal reference signals, with same frequencies and 90 degrees phase difference known as quadrature signals are sampled by a reception signal timing from a target. The measurement distance is calculated from the phase of the arctangent of the ratio of the two sampled data and the frequency of the reference signal. In the proof of concept experiments, the range resolution of 1.6 mm(1σ) has been achieved that corresponds to the time resolution of 11 ps. In the rangefinder system experiments, a random error of σ=5.3 mm on single-shot measurement has been achieved. This paper describes the principle of measurement the experimental configuration, results of proof-of-concept experiments, several experimental results on a single-shot laser rangefinder, and the proposal of a linearity compensation method.