Optical beam steering is essential for extending the field of view (FoV) in LiDAR systems while maintaining high spatial resolution. However, commercially available galvanometer scanners with similar nominal specifications can exhibit significantly different performance under practical conditions. This study presents a systematic experimental characterization of galvanometer scanners for mechanical beam steering applications. Three scanner models (GVS002, AT-25, and SC-45) were evaluated based on their angular response and scanning speed characteristics, while the proposed effective FoV analysis was demonstrated using the AT-25 scanner under practical LiDAR operating conditions. The comparison between measured and theoretical beam displacement was used to quantify deviation and determine the usable operating range. The effective FoV was defined as the region where the error remains within a specified threshold. The results show that all scanners have similar sensitivities of around 2 degrees/V, with SC-45 being the most sensitive, followed by GVS002 and AT-25. The measured scanning speeds are below 27 kilo points per second (kpps) for all models, enabling fast and stable data acquisition. Effective FoV analysis shows that the practically usable steering range is smaller than the estimated FoV obtained from static angular characterization, particularly at larger steering angles where deviation from the theoretical response increases. Using an error threshold of <= 2%, the experimentally validated effective FoV was found to be smaller than the estimated steering range derived from static characterization. The proposed characterization approach provides a practical basis for evaluating galvanometer scanner performance and supports the development of cost-effective and high-resolution 3D LiDAR beam steering systems.
In applications such as deep-space exp\loration and atmospheric remote sensing, chirp transform spectrometer (CTS) systems based on surface acoustic wave (SAW) dispersive delay lines have become a key spectral analysis solution owing to their low power consumption, high radiation tolerance, wide bandwidth, and high frequency resolution. However, in dual-channel CTS systems, discrepancies in chirp rate between channels lead to inconsistencies in frequency-to-time (F-T) mapping, which significantly degrade frequency resolution and spectral accuracy. A cooperative chirp-rate matching strategy is presented for a 1 GHz dual-channel CTS system. Based on the proposed strategy, an optimized chirp-parameter selection scheme is developed to improve F-T mapping consistency and the performance of high-resolution spectral measurements. Experimental results demonstrate that the optimized system achieves a frequency resolution of 92.92 kHz with improved spectral performance.
