Pulsed time-of-flight laser range-finding techniques for industrial applications

Julia Kostamovaara, Kari MAtta, Risto MyllylA(*)

University of Oulu, Department of Electhcal Engineering, Electronics Laboratory, Linnanmaa, SF-90570 Oulu, Finland
(*) Technical Research Centre ofFinland, Electronics Laboratory,
P.O.Box 181, SF-90570 Oulu, Finland

ABSTRACT

Typical construction and performance data for a pulsed time-of-flight laser rangefmding device intended for industrial
measurements is presented. It is shown that by using a laser diode transmitter with a peak power of 5 - 15 W a measurement
range of a few tens of metres can be attained with respect to a non co-operative target. The available single shot resolution
reaches mm-level in a fraction of a second. Accuracy depends greatly on the construction and adjustments of the device and
levels of better than mm can be achieved in the above measurement range. Various construction details and other factors
affecting to the available resolution and accuracy are discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION

There are innumerable industrial applications for an electronic distance measurement device (EDM) with mm-level accuracy.
One common application in the future may well be manufacturing accuracy control in construction engineering, for checking
the dimensions of large building blocks before commencing the assembly work in order to test that the blocks fit to each
other. Such a function is required in shipyards, for example.

This and many other similar problems can be solved with the pulsed time-of-flight laser rangefinding technique where
distance measurement is based on measurement of the transit time of a short laser pulse to an optically visible target and back
to the receiver. The obvious advantage of this technique over ultrasonic radar, for example, is ease of controlling the
divergency and spot size of the laser beam, and the advantage over other optical methods such as triangulation1 lies in the
broad dynamics of its measurement range. In addition, a laser radar device includes basically only one optical axis which
needs to be free of obstacles during the measurement period, which simplifies use of the system.

In the ideal case, pulsed laser radar should work with impulses in order to get the best possible accuracy. The bandwidth
achievable in practise with common, low cost electronic components is limited to a few hundred of megaherz, however, and
therefore the laser pulse length and rise time used are typically 10 - 15 ns and 1 - 2 ns, respectively. At first sight this seems to
be at variance with the desired accuracy, as the typical pulse length corresponds to a distance of 2 - 3 metres. The solution is
to carry out the timing from a specific point in the laser pulse in such a way that the walk of the timing moment is minimized
as the amplitude or shape of the laser pulse changes. Another essential part of a pulsed laser radar device is an accurate time
interval measurement unit, the importance of which for the overall performance of the radar is stressed by the high speed of
light, giving a 6.7 ps time interval to a distance change of 1 mm.

The aim of this paper is to present the typical construction of a pulsed time-of-flight laser radar device, discuss the achievable
performance and show some important construction details. Finally some applications and future research trends are
mentioned. The emphasis here is on industrial applications characterized by distances usually less than 50 metres and non-
cooperative targets. The techniques presented here have been developed in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Oulu, during the past 4 - 5 years.

2. CONSTRUCTION OF A PULSED TIME-OF-FLIGHT LASER RADAR DEVICE

A typical block diagram of a pulsed time of flight laser radar device is shown in Figure 1. The objects to be measured in
industrial applications are usually non-cooperative, and therefore high pulse power at the level of 5 - 15 W is needed to
achieve a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio in the detection. This can be done with single heterostructure laser diodes. The
current pulse needed for pulsing the diode is of the order of 30-50 A and can be achieved by avalanche breakdown in a
bipolar transistor2. The pulsing must be performed with a single transistor to keep the pulse shape as stable as possible. The

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 avalanche breakdown properties of BJ transistors vary greatly and there exist only a few types giving the above current level
with a single transistor. One suitable transistor in this respect is MJE200, for example. The maximum pulsing rate is limited
by the laser diode and is normally less than 10 kHz with SH diodes. The start signal for the measurement is achieved from
the laser output to avoid the unknown and varying delay of the pulser. Figure 2 shows a typical pulse shape for a SH laser
diode pulsed with a single bipolar transistor used in the avalanche mode.

The new generation of high power MOCVD lasers are also potential candidates for use in laser radars. The important
advantage of these laser diodes is their lower threshold current, which simplifies the pulsing problem and gives a more stable
light pulse.3

The spot size of the laser beam is critical as far as accuracy is concerned. From this point of view the best solution is to have
coaxial optics with autofocusing capability. Its disadvantage is low optical throughput, resulting in the use of paraxial optics
in applications where the SNR is critical.

It is common practise to separate the optomechanical measuring head from the electronics by means of optical step index
fibres of diameter 100 pim - 400 im depending on the laser diode used. The use of such fibres produces a homogeneous
beam whose properties can easily be controlled by simple optics. It also enables the measuring head to work in a harsh
environment and reduces its weight, which is important in applications where the laser beam must be deflected in order to
obtain 3D information on the objecL The use of fibres has disadvantages due to mode dispersion, oo5

In order to minimize the error due to dispersion, it is important to construct the optics in such a way that the numerical
aperture of the receiver fibre is entirely full, or at least does not change at all measuring distances and under all measuring
conditions. Similarly, the optical start signal should be produced by diffuse reflection to avoid mode selectivity in the pulse,
which may lead to a pronounced change in its shape as a function of temperature, for example. The user of the fibres should
also be aware of the temperature dependence of the delay in the fibre6 which may be ps/(C. lOOm) depending on the
fibre type used. Due to these effects the practicable length of fibres in applications demanding mm-level accuracy is only a
few metres.

The receiver channel of the laser radar consists typically of an avalanche photodiode connected to a transimpedance
preamplifier and voltage-type post amplifiers. It is possible to equip the AP diode with both start and stop fibres in order to
improve the stability of the laser radar. This solution necessitates the use of gain control in the optical channel and demands a
longer stop fibre to produce sufficient separation of the timing pulses at short distances. Good commercial choices exist for
the txansimpedance preamplifier. One example is NE5212 from Signetics giving a band width higher than 100 MHz with a
transimpedance of 7,5 k.Q and an input-referred noise current less than 3 pA/\1i, although the actual noise level achieved
depends on the total input capacitance of the amplifier.

The dynamics of the optical power received is usually high due to its hR2 -type dependence on the measuring range and
changes in the reflectivity of the target. Gain control is therefore usually needed, and the most accurate way of achieving this
is to have a neutral density filter in the optical path of the stop pulse. Again it is important that all the modes of the receiver
fibre should be attenuated by the same amount, so that the pulse shape does not change as a function of the gain control.

In spite of the gain control the amplitude of the timing pulse still changes from pulse to pulse due to photon noise and jitter in
the pulsing electronics. In scanning applications there may also be rapid changes in the amplitude of the timing pulse due to
target reflectivity variations, which may be beyond the speed of the gain control system. To reduce the decrease in resolution
and accuracy due to these effects the timing discrimination producing logic level pulses for the time interval measurement is
generally realized on some kind of constant fraction principle, which tends to cancel out the walk of the timing moment with
the amplitude of the timing pulse.7 Several variations on this basic scheme exist, and one of these is shown later is section
4. 1 . This typically gives a walk error of less than .5 mm in a dynamic range of 1:5.

The heart of a pulsed laser radar device is the time interval measurement unit, which should achieve a single shot resolution
better than the inherent single shot resolution of the system itself, so as the render the averaging of successive measurement
results maximally efficient. Under practical industrial measurement conditions with measurement ranges of a few tens of
metres the inherent resolution is about 1 - 5 cm, which means that the single shot resolution of the time interval

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 measurement should be better than 50 - 100 ps to attain the shortest possible measurement times. The other requirements for
time interval measurement are stability and linearity, which directly affect the accuracy achieved. The construction of the
time interval measurement technology used in our laser radars is presented in section 4.2, together with some measurement
results.

3. PERFORMANCE OF THE SYSTEM

3.1. Resolution

The performance of a pulsed time-of-flight laser radar device can be described in terms of its resolution and accuracy. The
resolution of a system describes the statistical variation in the measurement results, and can be improved by averaging
successive results. The accuracy of a system is a function of its systematic errors such as non-linearity and temperature drift,
which cannot be improved by averaging. Which one of these errors, statistical or systematic, is more important in real
measurements depends on the measurement time but it is the systematic errors that set the limit to the accuracy achieved.

The jitter of the timing moment can be defined by the well known equation8

yt = dU/dt (1)

where a is the rms-noise value and dU/dt the slope of the timing pulse at the timing moment. A simplified equation is
derivable from this for the distance measurement jitter

O.35c
aR 2.B.SNR.'J
(2)

where c is the speed of light, B the bandwidth of the receiver channel, SNR the signal-to-noise ratio in the detection,
expressed as a ratio of the peak value of the signal current to the rms value of the noise, and n the number of resultsaveraged.
Thus to be able to estimate the resolution achieved, one needs to know the SNR in the detection.

It is common practice to evaluate the optical power received in a laser radar device by means of the radar equation

R p.Po.(t)2.t (3)

where p is the reflectivity of the object, P0 is the optical output , r is the effective radius of the entrance pupil of the receiver,
R is the range to be measured and is the overall transmission efficiency of the optics. This is not valid for short distances,
however, as it gives results that are too optimistic, on account of the fact that the power collected by the receiving fibre may
not be equal to that entering the receiving aperture area, since the target image is not coincident with the receiving fibre end
in both the axial and vertical directions.

A software program has been developed to analyze this problem.9 The system to be analyzed can be coaxial or paraxial and
the focusing lengths of the transmitter and receiver can be chosen freely, as can the overlapping distance of their optical axis.
The software package was developed especially for cases in which fibres are used in both the transmitter and receiver. This
results in a situation in which the position distribution of the radiance is symmetrical about the optical axis and its direction
distribution is symmetrical about the normal of the source surface. It is also assumed that the radiance direction variation is
independent of position in the radiance distribution, that is

L(x, y, a, ) = L(x, y).L(a, ) = L1(p).L2(f) (4)

which simplifies the analysis and seems from its good fit with measured and simulated results to be a valid assumption.

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 Analysis of the power transfer function of a laser radar device by means of this software package includes the following steps

- the irradiance distribution on the target plane, including vignetting effects, is calculated from the measured
radiance distribution of the transmitter . The radiance of the source can be defined by two irradiance distribution
measurements, one on the entrance pupil plane of the transmitter optics and the other on the exit pupil plane.

- the target is assumed to behave in the manner of a Lambertian source, and therefore its radiance is achieved
directly from its irradiance distribution. This radiance is used to determine the irradiance distribution on the
receiver plane, including vignetting, employing calculations of the same type as above.

- the final effective power received is obtained by integrating the calculated irradiance distribution over the
receiving fibre area.

Figures 3 and 4 show some simulated and measured results for an example laser radar device developed for hot surface
profiling. The transmitter and receiver objectives are of the same type, with a diameter and focal length of 50 mm and 120
nrn, respectively. The parallel distance between the objectives is 40 mm (the two lenses both have a 5 mm segment cut off
the adjacent side). The diameters of the source and receiver fibres are 300 im and 400 .tm, respectively, and the transmitter
pulse power at the fibre end about 15 W. The signal current can easily be calculated from the power received as

is(R) = PR(R)M.S (5)

where M is the multiplication factor of the avalanche photo diode, S its primary sensitivity and R the measurement distance.

The equation for the final SNR can now be expressed as

SNR== 1S
1N
PR(R).M.S
(6)
sJ2.q.(P(R) + PB).M2.S.F(M).BN + iNA2.BN

where the denominator of the equation corresponds to the various noise sources such as photon noise of the signal (PR(R)),
background radiation (PB) and the input-referred noise of the electronics (NA) F(M) and BN are the excess noise factor of
the AP diode and the noise equivalent bandwidth of the receiver, respectively.

To calculate the distance measurement jitter, both the start and stop timing discriminations should be considered. The type of
detection should also be considered, as the basic equation holds only for constant level detection. With our technique,
(lCtCCtiOfl is achieved by splitting the incoming pulse into two channels with a delay difference and then detecting the crossing
over of the falling and rising edges of the pulses. As the rise and fall times of the timing pulses are about the same the
resolution achieved in this technique is better than with constant level technique with a factor of about 'J if the noise at the
edges can be considered uncorrelated.

Calculated and measured single shot resolutions for the above example laser radar system are shown in Figure 5 as a
function of the signal-to-noise ratio. In this calculation the timing jitter of both the start and stop pulses was considered to be
uncorrelated. The noise sources included were the noise of the preamplifier (about 5.7 pA/'Jii) and the noise of the signal
itself calculated at the detection level which is about 50% of the final amplitude. The signal-to-noise ratio in Figure 5 is given
as a ratio between the peak level of the signal and the mis value of the electronics noise. The bandwidth of the preamplifier
used was 100 MHz, transimpedance 7.5 k and AP-gain 100. The signal-to-noise ratio in start detection was about 100. The
calculation seems to reflect very well the actual resolution achieved, and shows that asingle shot resolution of about a few cm
can easily be achieved.

The measured effect of averaging on the resolution achieved under two sets of SNR conditions is shown in Figure 6. In pulse
detection, the SNR of about 10 is at its lowest possible level for reliable measurement.1 The results show that mm-level
resolution can achieved in a fraction of a second when the typical pulsing frequency is 1 kHz - 10 kHz.

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 3.2 Accuracy of the system

The final accuracy achieved depends on systematic errors, the most important of which are non-linearity, the walk error of
the uming discrimination and temperature drift. Non-linearity is usually generated by the time interval measurement unit, and
depends markedly on its construction. A time-to-digital converter structure is presented in section 4.2 which has very good
linearity due to its operating principle. The other source of non-linearity may exist in optical constructions in which the
receiver of the radar does not see the whole transmitter spot at every distance, which may lead to changes in the shape of the
timing pulse which cannot be cancelled out in the timing discrimination. This kind of situation is typical of paraxial optics at
short distances and the error induced can be of the order of several cm.

The walk error of the timing discrimination has a minor effect on the accuracy achieved if the average signal level of the
receiver channel remains constant, but it does bias resolution distribution and in that way produces some degree of error. If
the timing discriminator is designed to be part of the gain control system of the radar device at longer distances, for example,
its walk error will directly affect the accuracy of the final result.

The drift of the laser radar depends greatly on its construction and can be minimized by stabilizing the temperature of the
laser diode and using the same receiver channel for both the start and stop pulses. In this case the drift is determined by that of
the time interval measurement, which can be reduced to less than mm/C by a proper construction (see section 4.2).
Even in this case the drift is too large, however, and has to be compensated for by the software, by reference to frequent
temperature measurements.

In conclusion, an accuracy better than mm in a distance measurement range of about 30 m with respect to non-cooperative
targets can be achieved in a wide range of operating conditions by careful design of the various elements of the pulsed time-
of-flight laser radar device.

4. CONSTRUCTION DETAILS

4.1 Timing discrimination

The construction of the timing discriminator is shown in Figure 7. Timing is produced by the comparator N2 (Plessey Ltd.,
SP9687) in the form of the crossing over of the falling and rising edges of the analogue timing pulse, according to the timing
diagram in Figure 8. Noise is prevented from producing valid timing pulses by the noise comparator Ni which enables the
timing comparator only when the timing pulse at its input exceeds the pre-set reference level. The timing moment can be
defined by the delay TD2 and is usually about 50% of the final amplitude.

The delays TD1 and TD3, produced by coaxial cables, control the position of the front and back edges of the latch enable
pulse as regards the actual timing moment. Delay TD3 also determines the length of the ECL level output pulse of the timing
discriminator.

The idea behind the delays TD1 and TD3 is that they should be selected in such a way that the internal delays of N2 and Dl
are not affected by the amplitude variations in the analogue timing pulse. The set-up and hold time margins of the D-flip-flop
Dl should be met at all amplitude levels, for example.

The enabling of the timing comparator only for the period of the timing moment is important as it enables one to set its input
offset freely without oscillation problems. The delay in the comparator depends on the overdrive and slew rate of the
analogue timing signal at its input and increases as the amplitude decreases. This effect can clearly be seen in the
measurement result of Figure 9, which gives the walk error for a typical laser pulse before any adjustments of the timing
comparator. Fortunately, however, the increased delay at the lower amplitude levels can be compensated for by introducing a
small positive offset into the positive input of the comparator, which produces the opposite effect at the smaller amplitudes,
where the slew rate of the timing pulse is lower. In this way the two effects can be made to partly cancel each other outand
minimum walk error can be achieved.

Typical walk errors for real laser pulses in laser radar devices employing separate and common receiver channels for the start
and stop pulses, respectively, are shown in Figures 10 and 11. The former system gives typically better walk behaviour as the

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 receiver channel is cleaner, with its single timing pulse. The performance of the timing discriminator described here is critical
to its physical construction, e.g. layout, and adjustments, but with an experienced eye a walk error better than mm in a
dynamic range of more than 1 :5 can be achieved.

4.2 Time interval measurement

A simpiffied operating principle and block diagram of the time interval measurement unit used in our pulsed time-of-flight
laser radar devices is shown in Figure 12.11,12,13 The time interval to be digitized is split into three fractions Ti, T12 and T2,
with T=T1+Ti2-T2. Ti2 is synchronized with a free-running clock in the TDC (time-to-digital converter) and can be
accurately digitized by a counter.

Ti and T2 are the time fractions from the start and stop pulses to the next clock pulses but one, respectively, and can be
digitized with two similar analogue time-to-amplitude converters and succeeding AD converters. The AD conversion is
performed with iO bits, which gives 10 ps to the lsb of the TDC, as the period of the oscillator is iO ns. The widthof the main
counter determines the maximum range of the device, which is 2.56p.ts.

This operating principle enables one to achieve a wide linear conversion range typical of digital TDC principles together with
a very good single shot resolution typical of analogue solutions.14 One important feature is that the non-linearities in Ti and
T2 tend to average away when successive measurements are averaged due to the randomness of their lengths. This is a vital
feature for obtaining good linearity. Another important feature is that the drifts of the TACs tend to cancel each other out
because the difference T1-T2 is calculated in the final result. The TACs should therefore be similar and share common
references as far as possible.

The time-to-digital converter described is constructed on a single circuit board with dimensions of 100 mm*160 mm. The
digital parts were implemented with an ECL gate array and surface-mounted technology. The single shot resolution is better
than 20 P5 (sigma value) as shown in Figure 13 for the best and worst measured distributions. The drift is typically better than
mm/C and varies according to the matching of the TACs. A typical temperature drift result is shown in Figure 14.

There is no simple means for measuring the linearity of the TDC, as the measurement arrangements easily produce more
non-linearities than the TDC itself. An indirect approach is to measure the linearity of the whole laser radar device in which
case the errors of all the other parts are included in the result. Figure 15 shows the result of such a measurement, and
indicates that the total linearity is better than mm in a measurement range of 3 - 25 metres.

5. CONCLUSIONS

The present calculations and measurement results show that a measurement resolution of a few mm can be achieved in a
fraction of a second in a pulsed time-of-flight laser rangefinding device operating in industrial applications and employing a
laser diode as its transmitter. The power level needed depends on the specific application, but 5- 15 W peak power is usually
needed to achieve a measurement range of a few tens of metres with respect to non-cooperative targets. The electronic
bandwidth required is of the order of 100 - 200 MHz.

The accuracy achieved depends greatly on the implementation and construction details of the various electronic and
optoelectronic subblocks of the system, but an accuracy of better than mm can be achieved in the above mentioned
measurement range with careful design.

The laser radar techniques described here have been employed in numerous applications such as the measurement of liquid
levels15, robot vion16, hot surface profiling17 and measurement of the shapes and dimensions of large building blocks in
construction engineering.18

Various applications demanding 3D measurement are likely to become important in the future. Deflection of the laser beam
can be achieved with mirrors controlled by galvanometers, for example, or by deflecting the whole measuring head using
servo motors. In these applications it would be helpful if the laser radar could recognize human-made marks in its
environment. These could be used to show the edges of the object, for example, or as special marks from which the radar

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 device could calculate its own coordinates in the laboratory's coordinate system. One possibility for constructing such a
system is to have an illuminator and a position-sensitive detector on the optical axis of the laser radar, which would enable it
to locate the position of marks with high relative contrast to the background with respect to the optical axis of the system.19

One possible future trend in pulsed laser radar techniques will be to integrate the electronic subblocks of the system in order
to reduce its size, weight and power consumption, which could increase the number of applications markedly. Time-to-digital
conversion, for example, is at present based on the use of ECL technology, which consumes a great deal of pow, but we
have also designed time-to-digital converters using CMOS ASIC technology,20'22 in which measurement is based on a
digital delay line stabilized to a reference clock with feedback techniques to reduce the effect of the dependences of the
CMOS delay on supply voltage and temperature. Very promising results have been achieved, and a channel width of about
200 - 300 P5 can be achieved in a common 1.2 j.un CMOS process. This would also enable one to design high frequency
amplifiers, but the BiCMOS process is perhaps more suitable for these. It is very probable, however, that current ASIC
technologies will enable a pulsed time-of-flight laser radar device with at least din accuracy with a few integrated circuits,
and such development work is now going on in our laboratory.

6. REFERENCES

1. C. Loughlin, "Distance Sensing: Making Light Work, Sensor Review 9(3), pp. 13 1-136, 1989.

2. W.B. Herden, "Application of avalanche transistors to circuits with a long mean time to failure", IEEE Trans. Instrum,
Meas. IM-25, pp. 152-160, 1976.

3. S.E. Miller, I.P. Kaminow, Optical Fiber Telecommunications II, pp. 65 1 -652, Academic Press, Inc., London, 1988.

4. M. Koskinen, R. Ahola, J. Kost.amovaara, R. MyllylA,"On the use of an optomechanical sensing head in time-of-flight
laser rangefinding", SPIE Proceedings Volume 952 Laser Technologies in industry, pp. 400 - 405., 1989.

5. S. Nissil, J. Kostamovaara, R. Myllyla, "The Use of Optical Fibres in the Pulsed Time-of-flight Laser Rangefinding
Technique", SPIE Proceedings Volume 1267 Fiber Optic Sensors IV, 8 p., 1990.

6. S. Nissil, J. Kostamovaara, R. Myllyl, "Thermal Characterics of Optical Delay in Fibers Used in Pulsed Laser
Rangefinding", accepted to be published in Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 9, No.1 1, November 1991, 3 i.

7. M.R. Maier & P. Sperr, "On the construction of a fast constant fraction trigger with integrated circuits and application to
various photomultipliers", Nucl.Instr. and Meth.87, pp. 13-18, 1970.

8. G. Bertolini, Pulse shape and time resolution, in: G.Bertolini and A. Coche (eds.) Semiconductor detectors, pp.243-276,
North Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 1968.

9. J. Wang, K. MaattA, J. Kostamovaara, "Signal Power Estimation in Short Range Laser Radars", to be published in the
proceedings of the OPTCON'91 Conference, 10 p., San Jose, November 1-10, 1991.

10. RCA Electro-Optics Handbook, 1974.

1 1 . J.
Kostamovaara and R. Myllyl, "Time-to-digital converter with an analog interpolation circuit", Rev.Sci.Instrum. 57(1 1),
pp. 2880 - 2885, November 1986.

12. K. MAatt, J. Kostamovaara, R. Myllyla, "Time-to-digital converter for fast, accurate laser rangefinding", SPIE
Proceedings Volume 1010 Industrial inspection, pp. 60 - 67, 1989.

13. R. Rankinen, K. Matt, J. Kostamovaara, "Time-to-digital conversion with 10 ps single shot resolution", Proceedings of
the 6th Mediterranean Electrotehnical Conference, May 22-24, Ljubljana Yugoslavia, pp. 3 19-322, 1991.

14. D. Porat, "Review of sub-nanosecond time-interval measurements", IEEE Trans.Nucl.Sci., NS-20, pp. 36-5 1, 1973.

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 15. J. Kostamovaara, K. MAAttA, R. MyllylA, "A laser radar for the measurement of liquid level heights", SPLE Proceedings
Volume 1230, pp. 297 - 300, 1990.

16. I. Moring, T. Heikkinen, R. MyllylA, A. Kilpela, " Acquisition of three-dimensional image data by scanning laser range
finder", Optical Engineering 28(8), pp. 897-902, 1989.

17. K. MAatta, J. Kostamovaara, R. Myllyl, "A laser rangefinder for hot surface profiling measurements, SPIE Proceedings
Volume 952 Laser Technologies in industry, pp. 356 - 364, 1989.

18. I. Kaisto, J. Kostamovaara, I. Moring, R. Myllyla, "Laser rangefinding techniques in the sensing of 3-D objects", SPIE
Proceedings Volume 1260 Sensing and reconstruction of three dimensional objects and scenes, pp. 122 - 133, 1991.

19. I. Moring, R. Myllyl, E. Honkanen, I. Kaisto, J. Kostamovaara, A. Makynen, M. Manninen, "New 3D-vision sensor for
shape measurement applications", SPifi Proceedings Volume 1 194, Optics, illumination and image sensing for machine
vision, pp. 232 - 242, 1990.

20. T. Rahkonen, J. Kostamovaara, S. SaynAjakangas, "A CMOS ASIC time-to-digital converter for short time interval
measurements", Proceedings of the 1989 IEEE International Symposium on circuits and systems, Portland Oregon USA,
May 8 - 1 1 1989, Proceedings Vol. 3, pp. 2092 - 2095.

21. T. Rahkonen, J. Kostamovaara, "Pulsewidth measurements using an integrated pulse shrinking delay line", Proceedings of
the 1990 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, New Orleans, Lousiana May 1 -3 1990, Proceedings
Vol. 1, pp. 578 - 581.

22. T. Rahkonen, J. Kostamovaara, "The use of stabilized CMOS delay lines in the digitization of short time intervals",
Proceedings of the 1991 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS91), June 11 -14, Singapore, pp. 2252-
2255.

z-
TRANSMITTER
OPTICS
START
DISTANCE

RECEIVER
OPTICS

Figure 1. Block diagram of a pulsed-time-of-flight laser rangefinding system.

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 -
.9iii 2.Ss'dlu Z1.isa

Figure 2. A typical shape of a SH diode laser pulse (peak power level about 14 W) measured atthe input of the CFD.

0 5 10 15 20 25
TARGET DISTANCE [mJ

Figure 3. Comparison of calculated and measured signal power function in parallel optics.

1.2

1.0

0 5 10 15 20 25
TARGET DISTANCE [m]

Figure 4. Comparison of calculated and measured signal power function in coaxial optics.

SPIE Vol. 1614 Optics, Illumination, and Image Sensing for Machine Vision VI (1991)1291

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 80

70 -MEASURED -
6--- CALCULATED
F6
50
40
30
20
10

0
10 100 1000 10000
SK5NAL-TO-NOE RATK

Figure 5. Single shot resolution as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio.

100.0

0--- SNR 10
0--- SNR - 270

10.0

1.0

0.1 I I
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
NUMBER OF AVERAGED MEASUREMENT RESULTS

Figure 6. Resolution improvement as a function of averaging.

1
D1A D1B
IN

OUT

-Lr
TD3

R
CF-COMPARATOR

Figure 7. Block diagram of the CFD.

292 1 SPIE Vol. 1614 Optics, illumination, and Image Sensing for Machine Vision VI (1991)

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 Figure

8.
Figure

10.
Timing

Typical

E
walk -5.4 30
I?:
channels, curves
200 200
I discrimination

of 400
the method

an 400 .4-

the of
2.0
input
600 the
mV
SPIE

adjusted Figure
Vol. 600 CFD
offset
----
9.
800
CFD 3.0
1614
CF-comparator
in mV Walk
(pulses
voltage
a 800 of
of SIGNAL 1000 and
SIGNAL

Optics, ' an from

laser
the the
3.5
LEVEL
LEVEL
top:
mV 1200

CR) radar 1000 [my]

[my]
____
- unadjusted
Nluim'nation,

1400
device 4.0 analogue

and mV
1200
CFD.

comparator
and
1600
CFD,respectively).

Image as -

a 5.0
employing

1400

mV
1800 LE-input

Sensing

of
for
separate
parameter. the
1600 2000

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start

Mach/n.

and

Vision
stop
W
CF-comparator,

receiver

output

of
(1991)1293
 0 6.OmV - 8.OmV 0- 9.0rnV

10.0

8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0

.60
-8.0
.10.0
200 400 600 800 1000 1200
SIGNAL LEVEL [mV]

Figure 11. Typical walk curve of an adjusted CFD in an electrically one channel laser radar device.

START

___>

I4TERPOLATOR

Figure 12. Block diagram of the TDC.

294/ SPIE VoL 1614 Optics, Illumination, and Image Sensing for Machine Vision VI (1991)

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 -II-
4000

1000

0 1/. JJI!
0 510152025303540455055606570758085
CHANNEL NUMBER [ 1 channel - 10.41 ps]

Figure 13. Best and worst single shot resolution distributions of the TDC.

G 50 fl 105 flS 320 ns - 635 ns 980 ns

On n

60.0

40.0

20.0

0.0

-20.0

-40.0

-60.0

-80.0
50
TEMPERATURE rcj

Figure 14. Temperature stability of the TDC measured for several time intervals.

10.0

8.0

6.0

4.0
E
2.0
0.0

-10.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
DISTANCE [m]

Figure 15. Typical non-linearity in a laser radar device employing coaxial optics.

SPIE Vol. 1674 Optics, Illumination, and Image Sensing for Machine Vision VI (1991) I 295

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