Luminar Technologies, Inc.
Sizing the field of view of a detector to improve operation of a lidar system

Abstract:

A lidar system includes a light source, a scanner, and a receiver and is configured to detect remote targets located up to R.sub.MAX meters away. The receiver includes a detector with a field of view larger than the light-source field of view. The scanner causes the detector field of view to move relative to the instantaneous light-source field of view along the scan direction, so that (i) when a pulse of light is emitted, the instantaneous light-source field of view is approximately centered within the detector field of view, and (ii) when a scattered pulse of light returns from a target located R.sub.MAX meters away, the instantaneous light-source field of view is located near an edge of the field of view of the detector and is contained within the field of view of the detector.