Experimental research of 32×32 InGaAs Gm-APD arrays laser active imaging

In the last ten years, the laser active imaging technology on Geiger-mode focal plane APD has becoming the research hotspot on the international, because of its advantages on the detection sensitive, spatial resolution, and range resolution. Considering the characteristic of atmospheric transmission, the InGaAs or HgCdTe APD arrays has been selected firstly. Based on the InGaAs 32 ×32 APD arrays by domestic developing, the experimental platform of 1 570 nm laser active imaging was established. The target images from 3.9 km were captured on the condition of the frame 1 kHz, pulse energy 2 mJ, and the clear target surface structure range images from 720 m were collected. Through this field experiment, it is proved that the performance of Gm-APD arrays is good, and the platform can demonstrate the function of laser active imaging in the field. The experiments state that 1 570 nm focal plane APD laser radar can provide the well imaging performance, and it can remote sensing detection of the far distance target, laying the good research foundation for the future practical applications.