Abstract
In recent years, LIDAR has been used in remote sensing systems, obstacle avoidance systems on planetary landers, rendezvous docking systems, and formation flight control systems. A wide dynamic range is necessary for LIDAR systems on planetary landers and in rendezvous docking systems. For example, a dynamic range of 60 dB (60dB for light, 120dB for electric signal) was required for the receiving system used in the Hayabusa mission in order to measure distances between 50 m and 50 km. In addition, rendezvous docking systems require a ranging resolution of better than 10 cm. For planetary landers and rendezvous docking systems, ISAS/JAXA is developing a customized integrated circuit (IC) for LIDAR reception. This report introduces the design of the customized IC and reports the results of preliminary experiments evaluating the prototype, LIDARX02.
