A
lidar-based
system and method are used for the
solid state
beamforming and steering of
laser beams using optical
phased array (OPA) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and the detection of
laser beams using photodetectors.
Transmitter and
receiver electronics,
power management electronics,
control electronics,
data conversion electronics and
processing electronics are also included in the
system and used in the method.
Laser pulses beamformed by the OPA PIC reflect from objects in the
field of view (FOV) of said OPA, and are detected by a
detector or a set of detectors.A
lidar system includes at least one
lidar, and any subset and any number of complementary sensors,
data processing / communication / storage modules, and a
balance of system for supplying power, protecting, connecting, and mounting the components of said system.Direct correlation between the 3D
point cloud generated by the lidar and the color images captured by an RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
video camera can be achieved by using an
optical beam splitter that sends optical signals simultaneously to both sensors.A lidar system may contain a plurality of lidar sensors, a lidar sensor may contain a plurality of optical transmitters, and an
optical transmitter may contain a plurality of OPA PICs.