Patent attributes
Methods and systems for generating a high bandwidth linear FM chirp for a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) transceiver is described herein. The LADAR transceiver includes an array of laser sources configured to generate a series of pulses with each pulse offset in frequency by a respective frequency offset from a previous pulse and a subsequent pulse in the series of pulses. A ladder signal can be generated from the series of pulses and modulated with a modulation signal having a modulation bandwidth corresponding to the frequency offset between each pulse to generate the linear chirp signal. The linear chirp signal can have a chirp bandwidth corresponding to the number of laser sources in an array and a modulation bandwidth of the modulation signal.