Design of a Receiving-lens Module with Wide Field of View and Intense Light Concentration for LiDAR Applications

초록

Sensors for light detection and ranging (LiDAR) play a pivotal role in autonomous transportation for three-dimensional (3D) environment perception and real-time mapping. However, due to limited field of view (FOV) and high cost, there is growing demand for a cost-effective approach with a large FOV in LiDAR sensors. In this study, we propose a combination of a wide-angle lens, an image-side telecentric lens, and a coupling lens to focus received laser beams with a 180 degrees FOV and a spot size of tens of micrometers. The wide-angle-lens module is initially designed based on the transfer equation of the chief ray, to compress the field angles to desired values. Subsequently, the telecentric lens module is designed so that the chief rays are parallel to the optical axis in the image space, using Gaussian brackets. Finally, a coupling-lens module is employed to focus the light beam to a spot size of tens of micrometers. The resulting receiving-lens module operates at a wavelength of 1550 nm, with a 180 degrees FOV, a spot diameter of 78 mu m, and a total track length of 400 mm. The proposed system effectively enhances the receiving FOV and efficiency, thus boosting the overall performance and practicality of LiDAR systems.

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