[摘要]:We present a theoretical analysis and a comparison to experimental results on self-mixing interference. From the theoretical analysis and experiment, the error of the velocity measurement, which is caused by a speckle pattern, has been investigated and optimization of the laser diode velocity system by selecting suitable experiment parameters and proper signal processing methods has been reported. The actual measurement error is <3.1% over a wide velocity range (5.2-479 mm/s). (C) 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [DOI: 10.1117/1.3485755]