Optical system design for light detection and ranging with ultra-wide field-of-view using liquid lenses

The light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology is based on irradiating near-infrared light and measuring the time-of-flight of the scattered light in an object. This technology is becoming increasingly important, as the requirement of three-dimensional camera technology for future autonomous vehicles is on the rise. In this study, we propose an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) optical system for LiDAR that can sequentially scan a beam emitted from a high power laser through a small beam steering system using a liquid lens and a fisheye lens. The proposed optical system consists of a series of liquid lenses for beam steering, a commercial fisheye lens with a wide FOV, and a relay optics to effectively conjugate the intermediate image planes of the two lens systems. To verify theoretical feasibility, we have designed a practical optical system with an FOV of approximately 170°, which is much higher than the FOVs in any other non-rotating LiDAR systems.