Chip scale LiDAR technologies are considered to significantly improve SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power, and Cost) of a LiDAR system and lead to large-scale adoption of LiDAR devices for autonomous vehicles, ADAS L3/L4 vehicles and robotic applications. Coherent LiDAR, also known as FMCW LiDAR technology leverages photonic integrated circuits developed for coherent fiber optic communication to enable chip-scale LiDAR … The post High-power semiconductor optical amplifiers as the enabling technology for chip-scale LiDAR devices appeared first on 100G Optical Components, Coherent, PIC, D ..read more

Lidar sensors with high-level integration are being developed to address the size, weight, and power -cost (SWAP-C) requirements of automotive, robotic, and industrial applications.  With the availability of silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) from CMOS fabs, designers now can integrate the transmit and receive functions of the lidar onto highly manufacturable silicon chips and power … The post Quest for Chip-Scale Lidar and the Role of Optical Beam Steering appeared first on 100G Optical Components, Coherent, PIC, DWDM ..read more

Part 2: Sensors for Autonomous Driving Depending on the level of autonomy, the type and number of sensors a vehicle supports can fluctuate. For example, for Level 1 autonomy where automatic cruise control and lane departure assist features are supported, only a few sensors (Radar, camera and ultrasonic) are needed. However for Level 3 and … The post Lidar: A Coherent Vision for Autonomous Vehicle Sensors (Part 2) appeared first on 100G Optical Components, Coherent, PIC, DWDM ..read more

Today’s Lidar technology landscape may seem fragmented and confusing, given the terminology used to describe the technology and its performance. However, when viewed as an optical transceiver, Lidar technology evolution shows a strong similarity to pluggable fiber-optic transceiver evolution. This correlation is even stronger when Lidar technology leverages the datacom/telecom transceiver technology. The above analogy … The post Anatomy of a Coherent Lidar Transceiver appeared first on 100G Optical Components, Coherent, PIC, DWDM ..read more

Part 3: Introduction to Coherent Lidar Lidar used in today’s autonomous driving has its roots in laser/radar guns used by traffic law enforcement for speed limit compliance. Most laser speed guns emit a single beam and measure the reflection time of the laser pulse (Time-of-Flight, TOF, measurement) from a vehicle at a distance.  An advanced … The post Lidar: A Coherent Vision for Autonomous Vehicle Sensors (Part 3) appeared first on 100G Optical Components, Coherent, PIC, DWDM ..read more

Part 1: Introduction to Autonomous Driving: Levels of Autonomy Recently Autonomous Vehicles have been making the news with increasing frequency, both positive and negative, most recent being Waymo’s announcement of expending their self-driving minivan fleet by addition of 62,000 new Chrysler self-driving minivans. When combined with Waymo’s >5 million Miles of autonomous driving and average … The post Lidar: A Coherent Vision for Autonomous Vehicle Sensors (Part 1) appeared first on 100G Optical Components, Coherent, PIC, DWDM ..read more