I saw this video -
- and I am interested in having a go at something similar. I have a little RF experience from many years ago but I’m not confident in working with RF so right now I would just like to get a feel for the scope of implementing this.
So let’s say I want to modulate a laser at 40MHz, collect the reflected laser light and use a phase detector to determine the phase difference between the reflected light and the source.
Is driving the laser as simple as a 40MHz oscillator with something like a MOSEFT to power the laser diode? Do I need a special laser diode or are most of them capable responding in the MHz range?
On the receive side I assume that an appropriate spec PIN Photodode would be up to the job? The guy in the video uses amplifiers to boost the receive signal, I assume these can be straight forward transistor amplifiers with appropriate spec transistors?
For phase detection the guy in the video is using an AD8302, which seems fairly expensive and possibly over-spec’d for the job. Could I use a PLL chip such as the TLC2933 to do the phase detection?
Sorry if this sounds like a “design my project for me” type of question but before I jump-in and then try to swim, I’d like to have some idea deep the water is and what difficulties I may encounter.
So let’s say I want to modulate a laser at 40MHz, collect the reflected laser light and use a phase detector to determine the phase difference between the reflected light and the source.
Is driving the laser as simple as a 40MHz oscillator with something like a MOSEFT to power the laser diode? Do I need a special laser diode or are most of them capable responding in the MHz range?
On the receive side I assume that an appropriate spec PIN Photodode would be up to the job? The guy in the video uses amplifiers to boost the receive signal, I assume these can be straight forward transistor amplifiers with appropriate spec transistors?
For phase detection the guy in the video is using an AD8302, which seems fairly expensive and possibly over-spec’d for the job. Could I use a PLL chip such as the TLC2933 to do the phase detection?
Sorry if this sounds like a “design my project for me” type of question but before I jump-in and then try to swim, I’d like to have some idea deep the water is and what difficulties I may encounter.
