Patent attributes
A sensor for laser spot trackers. The novel sensor includes a detector array comprised of a predetermined number of subsets, each subset including a plurality of detector elements, and a readout circuit for providing a first output and a second output, the first output including subset signals that represent the total energy received in each subset and the second output including signals representing energy received by each individual detector element. In an illustrative embodiment, the array is divided into four subsets and the first output includes four subset signals that are compatible with four-quadrant guidance systems. A subset signal is generated by thresholding signals received from each individual detector element to remove noise, and then summing the thresholded signals from each detector element in the subset.
