Patent ID: 11921236
Assignee: AURORA OPERATIONS, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 15:
16. A light detection and ranging (lidar) system for a vehicle, comprising: an input optical path configured to receive a beam from a laser source;
a first optical path and a plurality of second optical paths, respectively branched from the input optical path;
a first optical amplifier coupled to the first optical path and configured to output a first local oscillator (LO) signal and a second LO signal;
a plurality of second optical amplifiers respectively coupled to the plurality of second optical paths, two of the plurality of second optical amplifiers being selectively turned on to modulate the beam received through respective second optical paths and output a first modulated optical signal associated with the first LO signal and a second modulated optical signal associated with the second LO signal, respectively; and
one or more optical components configured to:
transmit the first and second modulated optical signals at first and second transmit (TX) channels, respectively, to an environment,
receive first and second returned optical signals that are reflected from one or more objects in the environment, and
pair the first and second returned optical signals with the first and second LO signals, respectively.