METHOD OF GENERATING A TIME DOMAIN ECHO WAVEFORM AND ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION ECHO WAVEFORM GENERATION SYSTEM

A method of generating a time domain echo waveform comprises: a triggered source of pulsed electromagnetic radiation (108) emitting (202) a plurality of electromagnetic radiation pulses (132). A plurality of reflected pulses (134) irradiates an electromagnetic radiation detector cell (116), the detector (116) generating a plurality of stored electrical measurements in response thereto. The method also comprises generating a time-varying mixing signal and respectively applying (204, 206) phase-shifted variations thereof to the detector (116) while generating the plurality of electrical measurements. A signal pre-processor (126) reads out (210) the plurality of electrical measurements from the detector (116). A signal reconstruction unit (128) and then generates (300, 302, 500, 502) a spectrum (404, 604) in respect of the electrical measurements and a spectrum (406, 606) of the mixing signal. The signal reconstruction unit (126) generates a reconstruction signal spectrum (408) by deconvolving (304, 504) the spectrum (404, 604) of the stored electrical measurements using the spectrum (406, 606) of the mixing signal and then generates the echo waveform by converting (306, 506) the reconstruction signal spectrum (408) to the time domain.