William E Ruff

US Patent:

7675610, Mar 9, 2010

Filed:

Apr 5, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/789114

Inventors:

Brian Redman - Lafayette CO, US
William C. Ruff - Catonsville MD, US
Barry L. Stann - Edgewater MD, US

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army - Washington DC

International Classification:

G01C 3/08

US Classification:

356 503, 356 401, 356 41, 356 501, 356 51

Abstract:

Ladar systems and methods are provided. One embodiment is a ladar system comprising: a chirp generator for generating a chirped waveform; a laser for transmitting a light signal toward a target, the light signal being modulated by the chirped waveform; and a photon-counting sensor for receiving a temporally-modulated photon stream corresponding to the modulated light signal being reflected from the target and toward the ladar system, the photon-counting sensor gated relative to the chirped waveform.