Power supply topology for lidar system onboard UAV platform

Abstract

Laser diode adopted in LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) onboard a small low-cost UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - UAV) platform usually requires its carried components to be light in weight, small in volume, and specially efficient in energy supply. A DC-DC converter and a fast switch are often applied for the traditional power supply to drive the LiDAR system. This traditional method is not proper for application in a UAV platform. This paper provides a novel power supply topology, which consists of two coupled coils, pulse generator circuit, and a fast switch. The power supply topology has been designed, assembled, tested, and confirmed to generate pulse voltage of 100-300 V, up to 120 A pulse current, 50-200 μs pulse width, and 50 Hz maximum pulse frequency. The driver circuit is very simple, but could restrain current surge efficiently. This ensures that the laser diode does not be disturbed. It is demonstrated that it is sufficient to drive a laser diode used in LiDAR onboard UAV, and meets the requirement of weight and volume. Now the driver has been manufactured for application in UAV-based airborne lidar sample system.