Article

Fourier Coefficients Applied to Improve

Backscattered Signals in A Short-Range
LIDAR System
Iván Gómez-Arista 1,*, José A. Dávila-Pintle 2, Nancy Montalvo-Montalvo 2,
Abel A. Rubin-Alvarado 2, Yolanda E. Bravo-García 2 and Edmundo Reynoso-Lara 2
1 CONACYT-INAOE, Luis Enrique Erro # 1, Tonantzintla, Puebla 72840, Mexico
2 Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla, Puebla 72570, Mexico;
jose.davila@correo.buap.mx (J.A.D.-P.); montalvo.ncym@gmail.com (N.M.-M.);
arubinwb@hotmail.com (A.A.R.-A.); yolanda.bravog@correo.buap.mx (Y.E.B.-G.);
edmundo.reynoso@correo.buap.mx (E.R.-L.)
* Correspondence: ivan.goar@gmail.com

Received: 11 November 2019; Accepted: 4 February 2020; Published: 27 February 2020

Abstract: Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a remote sensing technique that measures
properties of backscattered light in order to obtain information of a distant target. This work
presents a method to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by 8 dB with respect to the direct detection
of the backscattered signal of a LIDAR system. This method consists of the measurement of the
Fourier coefficients of the LIDAR signal, which is possible thanks to the novel coupling of a
sequential equivalent time base sampling (SETS) circuit and a conventional lock-in amplifier that
allows to measure the Fourier coefficients of the LIDAR signal, the results are comparable to noise
elimination using Empirical Mode Decomposition. The feasibility of the proposal is demonstrated
experimentally with mist. The method can be used to different applications of elastic-scattering
LIDAR under the conditions of the devices for applied the phase sensitive detection.

Keywords: LIDAR; Signal-to-noise ratio; phase sensitive detection

1. Introduction
LIDAR systems are applied to navigation systems of mobile robots [1], to terrestrial and airborne
laser scanning of landslides [2], sensing of the atmosphere [3] and the monitoring emission rates and
gas concentration levels [4]. According to the application, the LIDAR systems can be divided into two
groups: elastic-scattering LIDAR and inelastic-scattering LIDAR, in the first, laser radiation is
scattered by atoms without undergoing a change in its wavelength. In the second one, the frequency
of the incident photon is different from the frequency of the scattered photon, in both cases, the pulse
of the signal contains all the target information [3–6]. There are many analysis methods of the LIDAR
signal, for example: in the inelastic-scattering LIDAR system there are Differential Optical Absorption
Spectrometer (DOAS) and Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectrometer (FTIR) [7]. In the case of elastic-
scattering LIDAR there are numerical analysis with Rayleigh o Mie scattering theory in accordance
with the size of the particle. In this case, measurements of intensity of the backscattered signal in
which the amplitude of the signal is usually analyzed, selected points of the backscattered signal are
different in accordance with designs of LIDAR systems, and additionally, criteria used in the
measurements of each system do not necessarily coincide [8]. For the above mentioned, LIDAR
applications have opened impressive advances on their data acquisition systems and develop new
methods in signals processing. For the processing of the backscattered signal of the target, the

Electronics 2020, 9, 390; doi:10.3390/electronics9030390 www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics

Electronics 2020, 9, 390 2 of 6

detected signal is very small because it decays in a quadratic manner according to distance,
additionally, background noise such as solar radiation and atmospheric turbulence is added to the
signal. Also, detectors commonly used, as avalanche photodiodes and photomultipliers, the noise of
its dark current and thermal noise are added to the total noise present in LIDAR measurements. In
order to improve the measurements of the backscattered signal of the LIDAR and its subsequent
analysis, at the signal can be applied some technique of denoising as a temporal or spatial average,
smoothing, Fourier Transform, Wavelet Transform or Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Low
pass filters are applied in the technique of average, this method has a wide bandwidth and poor cut-
off frequency [9]. The smoothing of the signal is a simple and convenient method although it
decreases the temporal resolution of the pulse. To apply the Fourier and Wavelet transforms, users
must have prior knowledge of its adjusting parameters which is based on the experience and this is
the main limitation of these methods [10]. The EMD is a nonlinear technique that decomposes a given
signal into a finite series of components, called intrinsic mode functions, however, the reconstruction
of the signal lacks explicit criteria to determine which modes are relevant. Further, partial
reconstruction often omits some useful information that is present in the discarded modes [9–11].
In this work is presented another approach to processes the LIDAR backscattered signal, taking
advantage of the periodicity of the LIDAR signal, because, it is well known that for periodic signals
any change in their amplitude can be measured through the change in any of their Fourier
coefficients. Fourier coefficients (FC) can be measured with great precision using a lock-in; this task
is trivial for low frequency signals, however for LIDAR signals it is much more complicated due to
the very short duration of LIDAR pulses, which have a duration below of nanoseconds and a
conventional lock-in is not fast enough. In order to accomplish this measurement, we present a novel
way to measure the Fourier coefficients with the use of sequential equivalent time base sampling
(SETS) circuits and a conventional lock-in amplifier which allows to have an improvement of the
signal-to-noise ratio of the backscattered signal. In order to show that FC measurement offers to be a
method of analyzing the LIDAR signal an experiment with a short-range LIDAR system was carried
out using a chamber filled with mist as scattering media, the behavior of the backscattered signal of
an elastic-scattering LIDAR, by measuring the first two coefficients of its Fourier series [12], is
presented.

2. Experiment
In order to simulate a scattering cloud, Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the experiment using
a LIDAR system and a chamber of mist. The LIDAR used in this work is a Laser Rangefinder System
(LRS) OSLRF-01 that includes a pulsed laser, detector, optics and sequential-equivalent-time-
sampling circuits (SETS). The pulsed laser wavelength is 850 nm, pulse width <30 ns, pulse frequency
<16 kHz and average energy per pulse <0.15 nJ / 200 nJ. The OSLRF-01 works on the time-of-flight
principle, ideal to measure path length through a given medium and with a range of distance of 18
m. Also, it scales signals that travel at speed of light at the speed of sound by a factor of approximately
881,000 times. The chamber for mist is a cylinder whose transverse section is 7.5 cm diameter in the
plane X−Y and its length (L) can be adjusted from 150 - 300 cm in the direction Z, there was an inlet
near to one edge of the chamber where the mist was pumped by a humidifier, near to the opposite
edge there was collocated a ventilation outlet, in order to have a flow of mist. To avoid laser light
reflection towards photodetector of the LIDAR by the structure of the chamber, transparent caps were
placed on ends of the chamber at an angle of 20 degrees with respect to the axis of propagation of
laser beam and an opaque screen was placed at the exit of the chamber in order to avoid reflections
of others objects. The mist into the chamber is filled and controlled through an Ultrasonic Humidifier
(UH). With the aim to apply the technique of sensitive phase detection with Fourier coefficients (FC),
the backscattered signal from mist is measured from the detector of the LRS. In the time domain, the
signal of the detector is recorded to the input signal of a dual Lock-in SR530 using an oscilloscope
Tektronix, the SETS was set for a period T = 26 ms, and the Fourier coefficients are obtained with the
same lock-in with ω = 2π/T. It is important to mention that both measurements are obtained at the
same time in order to analyze the signal-to-noise ratio of the LIDAR signal.
Electronics 2020, 9, 390 3 of 6

Figure 1. Schematic view of the experiment.

3. Results and Discussion

Figure 2 shows the temporal evolution of first coefficient C1 and second coefficient C2 of Fourier
from the lock-in while the backscattered pulse cross through the mist; these coefficients correspond
to fundamental frequency (ω) and second frequency (2ω) when the length of the chamber is of 150
cm. The curves show the switching from on to off from the UH in order to show the transition of the
mist into the chamber. Description of the process can be divided in three parts. In the first part (I)
starting from t = 0 s to t = 64 s, curves show the amplitude of the FC since the chamber is empty until
it is filled with mist when the UH is turned on. The second part (II), from 64 s ≤ t ≤ 129 s the chamber
is filled with mist and there is constant flow through all chamber; in the third part (III) corresponding
to time t ≥ 129 s the curves show the free flow of the mist when the UH is turned off. The coefficients
C1 and C2 have a time difference at the beginning of the filling of the chamber, this is due to the fact
that the lock-in takes each of the coefficients in a commutated way, but in part II, the curves show
that the time of commutated is irrelevant because the chamber is filled with mist and they show the
turbulence of the mist inside of the chamber. Part II of Figure 2 is analyzed in order to validate the
improvement of the LIDAR signal.

Figure 2. C1 and C2 Fourier coefficients obtained with the lock-in from mist for a chamber length of
150 cm.

Figure 3 shows the pulse (f(t), blue line) that correspond to the input signal of the lock-in when
C1 is measured in the part II from Figure 2. Theoretical Fourier coefficients CT1 and CT2 are calculated
by adjusting f(t) with a Gaussian function (f*(t), shown as a dashed red line in Figure 3 for C1).
For a Gaussian periodic signal, its Fourier coefficients is [13,14]
Electronics 2020, 9, 390 4 of 6

𝜎 (𝑛𝜔 )
𝐶 = exp − , (1)
2
where 𝜎 is the variance, n is the nth-coefficient and CTn decreases exponentially with the square of
n. In this work, the lock-in just can measure the first two Fourier coefficients directly and, in
accordance to CTn , the first two coefficients contribute with more power to the LIDAR signal. The
results are CT1 = 0.032 V and in the same way is calculated CT2 = 0.024 V. These results are close to the
average of the experimental coefficients C1 = 0.0322 V and C2 = 0.0228 V correspondingly in part II
from Figure 2.

Figure 3. Adjustment of the pulse in the input signal of the lock-in using a Gaussian function.

The signal-to-noise ratio in decibels of the temporal pulse (SNRtp,dB) is calculated as

𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒕𝒑,𝒅𝑩 = 𝟏𝟎𝒍𝒐𝒈𝟏𝟎 𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒕𝒑 , (2)

where SNRTP is [11]

|𝑓(𝑡)|
𝑆𝑁𝑅 = 𝑑𝑡 (3)
|𝑓(𝑡) − 𝑓 ∗ (𝑡)|
and f*(t) is the noiseless signal of the adjustment. The experimental curve of the temporal pulse for
C1 of Figure 3 has a SNRtp,dB = 13.8 dB.
The signal-to-noise ratio for a Fourier coefficient C from a lock-in is calculated with the ratio of
power of the signal (Ps) and the power of the noise (Pn) i.e., [12]
𝑃
𝑆𝑁𝑅 = (4)
𝑃
where

𝑃 = |𝐶| and 𝑃 = , (5)

K is the power density spectrum of the noise signal and τ is the time constant of the lock-in. Pn
shows the uncertainty of recovered coefficients of the lock-in, particularly with the time constant,
hence, if τ is increased, the power of noise in the Fourier coefficient is decreased and its uncertainty
is also decreased. It should be mentioned that this implies a compromise between the noise reduction
of the Fourier coefficient and time of the measurement [12]. For measuring the dynamic of mist into
the chamber τ = 30 s and K is obtained through Parseval theorem [13]. The SNRlock-in,dB is obtained in
the same way that SNRtp,dB, therefor, for C1 of the lock-in the SNRlock-in,dB = 22 dB.
In order to analyze the behavior of Fourier coefficients respect to mist density, under the same
parameters from the lock-in, backscattered light signals were obtained experimentally by the mist
using a chamber length of 350 cm. In Figure 4 it is shown the first coefficient (C1) and the second
Fourier coefficient (C2) of the backscattered pulse by the mist inside of the chamber corresponding to
150 and 350 cm of length. It can be notice that through the measurement of Fourier coefficients, it can
Electronics 2020, 9, 390 5 of 6

be distinguished the effect of the mist density on the coefficients. As well, it is calculated the signal-
to-noise ratio in decibels for a chamber length of 350 cm, the SNRto,dB of the temporal pulse is 12.3 dB
and the SNRlock-in,dB for C1 is 20.4 dB.

Figure 4. Fourier coefficients C1 and C2 corresponding to chamber lengths of 150 and 350 cm.

Experimental and theoretical Fourier coefficients for the chamber lengths of 150 and 350 cm are
shown in Figure 5. The orange bar is the experimental average value and the green is the value
obtained from the corresponding adjustment for two lengths of the chamber with mist. The Figure 5
shows that the theoretical estimate is adequate for the experimental results considering a Gaussian
function. For the case of the mist contained in the chamber with a length of 350 cm, the theoretical FC
moves away from the experimental value due to the fact that the temporal pulse is smaller in
amplitude and noisier by the extinction of the pulse laser, but, the advantage of use the phase
sensitive detection is the possibility of measure nosier signals [12,15].

Figure 5. Experimental and theoretical Fourier coefficients.

4. Conclusions
In this work, it was shown that the technique of phase sensitive detection and SETS can be
applied to process the LIDAR signal, this allowed to measure the Fourier coefficients with an
improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of the backscattered signal of a LIDAR system. The main
advantage of use Fourier coefficients as a signal processing method is that for an input signal with a
signal-to-noise ratio of 13.8 dB, the signal-to-noise ratio of the first Fourier coefficient C1 for a chamber
length of 150 cm is 22 dB; this corresponds to an improvement of approximately of 8 dB, even more,
the signal-to-noise ratio improvement was maintained with a different chamber length, this is due to
the technique of phase sensitive detection can measure periodic signals into noise, similar
Electronics 2020, 9, 390 6 of 6

improvement using EMD is shows by Chang, J. et al. [11]. The improvement for the two lengths of
chamber shows the independence of the mist density and validate the improve of the LIDAR signal
using Fourier coefficients. It should be mentioned that the OSLRF-01 system scales the speed of light
approximately 881,000 times through sample time circuits (SETS) and this scaling allowed the use of
a conventional lock-in as the SR530, however, in applications of short-range, atmospheric or other
kind of LIDAR, the sensitive phase detection must be implemented with the correspond speed
devices under the principle of SETS.
Author Contributions: J. A. D. - P. conceived the idea. All authors have jointly and equally made the work
performed and approved the final version. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the
manuscript.

Funding: This research received no external funding

Acknowledgments: Postdoctoral program PRODEP 511-6/17-14390.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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