Recent development of 3-D imaging laser sensor in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

We have been developing 3-D imaging laser sensors for several years, because they can acquire the additional information of the scene, i.e. the range data. It enhances the potential to detect unwanted people and objects, the sensors can be utilized for applications such as safety control and security surveillance, and so forth. In this paper, we focus on two types of our sensors, which are high-frame-rate type and compact-type. To realize the high-frame-rate type system, we have developed two key devices: the linear array receiver which has 256 single InAlAs-APD detectors and the read-out IC (ROIC) array which is fabricated in SiGe-BiCMOS process, and they are connected electrically to each other. Each ROIC measures not only the intensity, but also the distance to the scene by high-speed analog signal processing. In addition, by scanning the mirror mechanically in perpendicular direction to the linear image receiver, we have realized the high speed operation, in which the frame rate is over 30 Hz and the number of pixels is 256 x 256. In the compact-type 3-D imaging laser sensor development, we have succeeded in downsizing the transmitter by scanning only the laser beam with a two-dimensional MEMS scanner. To obtain wide field-of-view image, as well as the angle of the MEMS scanner, the receiving optical system and the large area receiver are needed. We have developed the large detecting area receiver that consists of 32 rectangular detectors, where the output signals of each detector are summed up. In this phase, our original circuit evaluates each signal level, removes the low-level signals, and sums them, in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. In the following paper, we describe the system configurations and the recent experimental results of the two types of our 3-D imaging laser sensors.