In this paper, a novel method based on multichannel time delay estimation with linear fitting correction for laser time-of-flight (TOF) measurement is described. The laser TOF measurement system is constructed with a laser source, a stop receiver channel, a reference receiver multichannel, an ADC sampling unit and a digital signal processing unit. Limited by the sampling rate, the precision of laser TOF measurement is restricted no more than the ADC sampling period in conventional methods. As this problem is considered, multi-channel correlation time delay estimation with linear fitting correction is devised. It is shown that the measuring precision is better than 2ns with multi-channel time delay estimation and not influenced by SNR. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and stable.

Date Published: 15 March 2013
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 8611, Frontiers in Ultrafast Optics: Biomedical, Scientific, and Industrial Applications XIII, 86111H (15 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2002746

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8611:
Frontiers in Ultrafast Optics: Biomedical, Scientific, and Industrial Applications XIII
Alexander Heisterkamp; Peter R. Herman; Michel Meunier; Stefan Nolte, Editor(s)