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Lidar based on Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode Detector (Gm-APD), also called Gm-APD Lidar for short, has the advantages of the ultra-high sensitivity and ranging accuracy, and therefore it is widely used in the weak signal detection over a long distance. Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) is a more commonly used signal processing method of Gm-APD Lidar. However, after each avalanche response, Gm-APD needs a certain time to quench avalanche current, which is called the dead time. In the dead time, Gm-APD can't response any signal. This will result in the uneven response by Gm-APD, and the response probability of the front of the echo pulse signal is higher than that of the back of the echo pulse signal. The peak of photon counting results will deviate from the real peak of the echo signal, and this deviation will become larger with the increase of the echo pulse width. In many application environments (for example, underwater, battlefield smoke, fog and dust, etc.), the broadening effect of the echo pulse signal is obvious, and this will seriously impact the ranging accuracy of Gm-APD Lidar. In this paper, an improved method uses the multi-gate detection to response the complete waveform of the echo pulse signal, and thus improves the ranging accuracy of GmAPD due to obtaining more accurate echo pulse peak.
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