Lidar chip startup Scantinel Photonics is claiming a significant technological breakthrough with its latest “massively parallelized” photonic integrated circuit (PIC).
From an article in Optics
The Ulm, Germany, company, which recently raised €10 million in venture investment, is one of a small number focused on frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) lidar, which is able to sense both the location and velocity of moving objects around a vehicle.
The approach promises chip-scale lidar sensors that could be produced in high volumes for the automotive industry – but relies on much more sophisticated engineering and photonic integration than conventional scanning or time-of-flight units.
Integrated laser
Now Scantinel says that the second generation of its PIC brings it a step closer to producing a single-chip lidar system.
“The photonic chip offers an exceptional combination of high pixel rate and high signal-to-noise ratio, enabling the capture of outstanding high-quality real-life data,” claims the firm.
“This advancement is made possible by the chip’s unparalleled level of integration, setting it apart in the world of lidar technology and paving the way for the realization of autonomous driving.”
Scantinel co-founder Vladimir Davydenko added: “Automotive solid-state scanning lidar requires the co-integration of detectors, laser, and ultra-low loss solid-state scanner on the same CMOS-foundry compatible photonic platform.
“Scantinel Photonics GmbH demonstrates [an] integrated, massively parallelized detector and scanning chip sharing the same photonic platform as our integrated laser.”
According to another of the firm’s co-founders, managing director Andy Zott, the latest PIC architecture also enables full in-system calibration – something that ought to deliver significant cost savings in a volume production environment, by reducing equipment and fabrication facility area requirements while cutting production times.
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