Optica’s coverage of the recent (May 2024) imec #ITF2024 in Antwerp, Belgium, continues, and we appreciate the positive feedback we’ve received so far.
There are many reasons why today’s mechanical and hybrid (solid-state combined with mechanical) LiDAR technologies don’t meet the demands of tomorrow’s applications:
- They’re too bulky and costly to integrate elegantly into devices such as cars, VR devices, and mobile lidar systems.
- They often depend on experts for their operation and calibration, adding to the price tag.
- They’re composed of moving parts, making them vulnerable to vibrations and shocks.
Moreover, mechanical LiDAR's angular resolution does not meet the requirements needed for activities such as long-range scanning. For example, to resolve a cm-scale object from 200-300 m, you need an angular resolution of 0.01°.
At imec’s recent ITF2024 exhibition, we grabbed a few words from Joris Van Campenhout, program Director Optical I/O at imec to find out why they are integrating all LiDAR components on one integrated circuit, to ensure solid-state LiDARs overcome all these drawbacks. They’re compact, contain no moving parts, and can be mass-produced (wafer level) at a relatively low cost per device. Imec is doing this together with PhotonDelta and the Holst Centre in Eindhoven. So what’s next?
26 май 2024
