Flash and point-and-shoot hybrid lidar by DMD-based solid-state diffractive beam and image steering

Solid-state implementation of lidar is highly anticipated for a wide field of view (FOV), long range, high resolution, and high-framerate lidar, yet is elusive. Traditional solid-state flash lidar using a 2-dimensional detector array suffers from a trade-off among FOV, range, and resolution due to the limited number of pixels. To decouple the trade-off while retaining solid-state implementation, we demonstrate an optical architecture that hybridizes flash and a point-and-shoot lidar, which is enabled by diffractive beam and image steering by digital micromirror device (DMD). With a low pixel count detector, a 32 × 32-pixel silicon photo multiplier (SiPM), the lidar image steering method employs a time-multiplexing method to expand the FOV to 49.5 degrees, while preserving an angular resolution of 0.22 degrees and achieving a frame rate exceeding 142 fps.