NON-SATURATING RECEIVER DESIGN AND CLAMPING STRUCTURE FOR HIGH POWER LASER BASED RANGEFINDING INSTRUMENTS

摘要

A non-saturating receiver design and clamping structure for high power laser rangefinders of especial utility with respect to pumped, monoblock lasers. The receiver comprises a photodiode and a transimpedance amplifier having at least first and second stages. The first stage comprises a field effect transistor and the second stage comprises a non-saturating, non-inverting amplification stage including a differential pair of bipolar transistors having a feedback path coupling the second stage to the input of the first stage. A clamping structure for the receiver comprises a resistor coupling a cathode of the photodiode to a first voltage input and a clamping diode also coupling the cathode to a second lower voltage input. A capacitor having a capacitance Cs couples the cathode of the photodiode to a reference voltage line, wherein the capacitance Cs is greater than the capacitance of the photodiode CD.

主权项

1. A laser rangefinder receiver comprising:
a photodiode for detecting laser energy; and a transimpedance amplifier coupled to said photodiode, said transimpedance amplifier comprising at least first and second stages, said first stage comprising a field effect transistor having a gate terminal thereof coupled to said photodiode and said second stage comprising a non-saturating, non-inverting amplification stage.