Patent ID: 7710547

Claim:
A coherent range measurement system comprising: (a) an optical arrangement defining a current optical field of view; (b) an illumination subsystem configured for transmitting a pulse of coherent illumination from a pulsed laser source along a plurality of transmitter optical fibers including delay loops of differing lengths to transmit pulses at different times along each of a plurality of transmission directions within said current optical field of view; (c) a detection arrangement including: (i) a detector sensitive to said coherent radiation, and (ii) detector optical fibers associated with said transmitter optical fibers and configured to direct part of said transmitted pulses derived from each of said transmitter optical fibers at a location after said delay loops and a reflected signal from each of said directions onto said detector; and (d) a processing system associated with said detection arrangement and configured to process an output of said detector to derive range data associated with each of said directions by coherent detection of said reflected signals employing said part of said transmitted pulses as a local oscillator.