Optical phased array (OPA) is a suitable device for producing emission beams in LiDAR. In order to achieve high-speed scanning control of the output beam by OPA chips, we designed and produced a 128-channel silicon-based OPA chip based on electro-optic modulation. Considering the characteristics of multi-phase control in electro-optic OPA chips, a parallel dual-port random access memory (RAM) inside a field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology is used to achieve optical phase control for each channel. The entire system is implemented by existing FPGA chips and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). To implementing the circuit system, we also built a high-speed testing environment for OPA scanning. The system was used to verify the main performance of our designed OPA chip and achieve high-speed scanning control. The test results show that our designed OPA chip and control circuit can achieve fast scanning of the emission beam. The optical phase configuration time is less than 5 μ s. This system can meet the requirements of fast scanning control for all solid-state LiDAR optical emission modules. This work lays the foundation for our subsequent development of OPA-based all solid-state LiDAR prototype.

Optical communication modulation technology and networking technology are two important technologies for constructing free-space optical (FSO) communication. In this paper, pulse width modulation (PWM) is used to realize free-space optical communication. The process of signal modulation and demodulation is implemented by means of a field programmable gate array (FPGA). An optical communication relay system is constructed to realize communication networking. The binary data bits in the communication process are converted into pulse signals of different widths, the data demodulation process is realized by sampling with a high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the data level is determined by counting the proportion of high and low voltages sampled in a pulse period. The relay system analyzes the routing target after receiving the pulse signal from the transmitter, and then sends the data to the target receiver. The experimental results show that the constructed system can achieve point-to-multipoint free-space optical communication. Additionally, using ADC to demodulate the received signal increases the stability of the free-space optical communication system. This system provides the design prototype system of FSO communication networking technology.

The pulse laser emission circuit plays a crucial role as the emission unit of time-of-flight (TOF) LiDAR. This paper proposes a nanosecond-level pulse laser diode array drive circuit for LiDAR, primarily aimed at addressing the issue of high-speed scanning drive for the laser diode array at the emission end of solid-state LiDAR. Based on the single pulse laser diode drive circuit, this paper innovatively designs a circuit that includes modules such as a boost circuit, linear power supply, high-speed gate driver, GaN field-effect transistor, and pulse narrowing circuit, realizing an 8-channel laser diode array drive circuit. This circuit can achieve a pulse laser array drive with a single channel operating frequency of greater than 100 kHz, an output pulse width of less than 5 ns, a peak power greater than 75 W, and a channel switching time that does not exceed 1 μs. A field programmable gate array (FPGA) is used to control the operation of this circuit and perform a series of performance tests. Experimental results show that this circuit has a high repetition rate, large output power, a narrow pulse width, and fast switching speeds, making it highly suitable for use in the optical emission module of solid-state LiDAR.

A shortwave infrared Ge–Si photodetector will become the core device of the LiDAR optical receiver. In order to meet the urgent demand for photodetectors in the LiDAR field, we designed and produced a 32 × 32-pixel Ge–Si photodetector array, which was proposed and developed to meet the performance requirements of the detector array. A dark current detection system for fast scanning and detecting large-scale Ge–Si detector arrays was proposed and developed to achieve the rapid detection of dark current in each detector pixel, with a detection accuracy of less than 1 nA. The system validated the primary performance indicators of the detector array we designed, achieving rapid discrimination of the array performance and rapid localization of damaged pixels. The scanning test results showed that the average dark current of the designed detector array chip was on the nanoampere level, and the proportion of bad points was less than 1%. The consistency of the array chip was high, which meets the requirements of light detection at the receiving end of LiDAR. This work laid the foundation for our subsequent development of a LiDAR prototype system.

The shortwave infrared Ge-Si photodetector will become the core device of the LiDAR optical receiver. In order to meet the urgent demand for photodetectors in the LiDAR field, we have designed and produced a 32×32 pixel Ge-Si photodetector array proposed and developed to meet the performance requirements of the detector array. A dark current detection system for fast scanning and detecting large-scale Ge-Si detector arrays is proposed and developed to achieve rapid detection of dark current in each pixel of the detector. The system was used to validate the main performance indicators of the detector array we designed, achieving rapid discrimination of array performance and rapid localization of damaged pixels. The scanning test results show that the average dark current of the detector array chip we designed is at the nano ampere level, and the proportion of bad points is less than 1%. The consistency of the array chip is high, which can meet the requirements of light detection at the receiving end of the LiDAR. This work laid the foundation for our subsequent development of a LiDAR prototype system.