Major technical barriers and a high-precision distance measurement method for frequency modulated continuous wave LiDAR.

• Summarizing the major technical barriers that limit the precision of FMCW LiDAR range. • Modeling of four key factors effects on ranging precision, including Chirp nonlinearity, phase noise, optical path difference drift, material dispersion. • Proposing a novel measurement method for high-precision ranging, which can be used to obtain micrometer-accurate measurements in both active and passive environments. Frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is considered as one of the most promising 3D imaging technologies by virtue of its single-photon detection sensitivity, high interference immunity, and high precision. In this paper, major technical barriers that limit the precision of FMCW LiDAR range are summarized and analyzed, and solutions to improve the measurement precision are presented. In addition, a novel method for high precision ranging of FMCW LiDAR is proposed, which can be applied to measure target distance in both active and passive environments. The proposed method has a precision of 11 μm in passive environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]