False alarm suppression of multipulsed laser ranging system with Geiger-mode detector

The false alarm probability is of great concern when designing and evaluating the performance of a multipulsed laser ranging system with a Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode. In this paper, based on the statistical distribution difference of the arrival time of the echo photons and noise in the time histogram, a false alarm suppression algorithm is presented. According to the data-processing method of the algorithm, the theoretical model of target detection and false alarm probability with a Poisson statistic and the system working at long dead time is established. With typical system design parameters, the target detection probability under different echo intensity and detection number is analyzed, and the influence of four main factors, namely, detection number, echo intensity, noise, and echo position, on the false alarm probability is investigated. The results show that multipulsed detection can improve the target detection probability, and using this developed algorithm, the false alarm probability can be effectively suppressed, to obtain an appropriate false alarm probability; it is suitable that the detection number is selected as 8; and stronger echo intensity, lower noise level, and a more frontal echo position can result in a lower false alarm probability. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America