Pulse compression-based improvement on the estimation accuracy of time interval between two trigger signals in light screen array

This paper presents a novel method based on pulse compression theory to improve the detection accuracy of light screen array. According to the work principle of light screen array, discusses several important factors led to the deterioration of estimation accuracy of time interval between two trigger signals. Then, the estimation accuracy of time interval can be improved using two techniques (spread spectrum and matched filtering) in term of Cramer-Rao lower bound criterion. Combining with the two techniques, proposes a pulse compression-based algorithm to estimate the time interval between trigger signals accurately. Through simulation and analysis, the results show that the estimation accuracy of time interval between trigger signals is up to 5 μs under the noise-signal ratio(SNR) of 0 dB and two screens thickness ratio of 5/6, and the proposed method is scientific and feasible.