Lumotive


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process allows Hamamatsu to offer the highest level of precision,’ Barrie asserted. ‘Hamamatsu has also invested heavily in infrastructure for production capacity at high volumes, allowing us to offer low-cost sensors.’ For example, Hamamatsu produces the main options of silicon photodiodes that detect at 905nm, including APDs, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). It also offers InGaAs detectors that can detect 1,550nm laser light. ‘Currently, APD arrays used with an amplifier array are the most demanded by the market,’ Barrie said. Hamamatsu offers all detector options in automotive qualified form, and they can be integrated onto various packages and with the associated integrated circuits. The company also provides 905nm


edge-emitting pulsed laser diodes, either individually as bare chips, in conventional bullet type or cheap and temperature- resilient surface ceramic packaging, or stacked together. ‘We have more than 70 different companies using our components in 70 different solutions,’ Demezet underlined.


Such components attract providers


initially targeting self-driving robotic vehicles, and therefore whose products do not need full automotive qualification, such as Robosense, a developer based in Shenzhen, China. The company’s RS-Lidar-M1 system moves away from large-scale mechanical scanners, instead implementing MEMS reflectors in solid-


state lidar. The core 2D MEMS micro-mirror technology combines with a low-cost 905nm light source and ‘a variety of breakthrough opto-mechanical systems and signal processing technologies’ according to vice president of R&D, Leilei Shinohara. It therefore achieves 200m measurement range, and a 120° field of view. ‘The new solid-state lidar system is stable, reliable, low-cost, easy to mass-produce, and easy to embed in the car body,’ he said. Having established this offering,


Robosense is now launching automotive- grade products in order to reach higher


“Performance can always be better… but what the market really wants is to achieve a reasonable price, more stable and reliable products, while meeting customer needs”


production volumes. ‘For mass production of autonomous driving, lidar’s supply capacity, cost and reliability need to meet the requirements of automotive products,’ Shinohara said. ‘The components selected for lidar must also meet such requirements – otherwise lidar products cannot truly enter mass production. In the industry chain, 905nm laser technology can meet such needs.’ Similarly, the company uses APDs as its detectors, thanks to their ‘mature supply chain, reasonable


cost, relatively high sensitivity and fast response’. In targeting autonomous driving,


Robosense also has its own AI algorithm to detect obstacles from the ‘3D point cloud’ of location data that lidar creates. The algorithm ‘uses deep learning and incorporates the advantages of traditional algorithms’, Shinohara noted. It is embedded in chips in its systems and enables direct output of detected, tracked and classified obstacle information. The algorithm has allowed RS-Lidar-M1 to reach car makers’ requirements for level 3 automatic driving, such as enabling safe driving in traffic jams and on highways in high-speed road conditions, he added. Fully-automated vehicles will be the


fastest-growing automotive use of lidar in Robosense’s view. ‘We think large-scale application of lidar in the robot field may be earlier than the large-scale application of lidar in the automatic driving field – it will start in the next few years,’ Shinohara said. In preparation, the company is ‘constantly stepping up co-operation’ with carmakers and part suppliers. ‘Performance can always be better, but what the market really wants is to achieve a more reasonable price, more stable and reliable products, while meeting customer needs,’ he concluded.


Moore’s law of the road Solid-state lidar startup Lumotive’s CEO Bill Colleran agrees that there is a key need for affordable performance sufficient to enable autonomous vehicles. ‘Significant


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Lumotive’s beam steering technology uses liquid crystal metasurfaces, enabling solid-state lidar with no moving parts 18 Electro Optics Augut/September 2019 @electrooptics | www.electrooptics.com


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