An FM/cw breadboard ladar using a 32-element linear self-mixing detector array

The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is investigating a ladar architecture based on FM/cw radar principles that uses metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) detectors as self-mixing detectors. ARL has recently incorporated a 1/spl times/32 pixel linear detector array of such detectors into a breadboard FM/cw ladar system and performed a series of characterization and outdoor image collection experiments. This paper discusses the basic operation of the system and presents some ladar imagery taken on the ARL Adelphi campus.