News: Optoelectronics
31 January 2023
Lumotive and Lumentum introduce reference design for faster adoption of 3D LiDAR
Lumotive of Redmond, near Seattle, WA, USA, which develops patented Light Control Metasurface (LCM) beam-steering chips enabling next-generation 3D sensors, and Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes optical and photonic products for optical networks and lasers for industrial and consumer markets) have jointly announced the availability of the M30 Reference Design, a complete software-defined sensor implementation to enable rapid adoption of LCM-based solid-state beam-steering technology.
Integrating Lumotive’s LCM beam-steering chip with Lumentum’s M52-100 multi-junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array, the M30 Reference Design is available now for evaluation by select customers. Lumotive is showcasing the features of LCM beam-steering technology at SPIE Photonics West 2023 in San Francisco, CA, USA (28 January to 2 February).
“Lumentum’s high-performance, multi-junction VCSEL arrays have unique and powerful advantages such as increased energy efficiency and scanning accuracy, critical for all-electronic 3D LiDAR sensor solutions,” says Rakinder Grover, Lumotive’s VP of strategy and partnerships. “The M30 reference design seamlessly integrates Lumentum’s M52-100 VCSEL array technology with Lumotive’s transformative beam-steering chips. The result is a software-definable, immediately deployable LiDAR sensor solution that addresses both the low-power and small-footprint requirements of short- to long-range mobility and industrial applications.”
Unlike traditional flash illumination solutions, LiDAR sensors based on LCM electronic beam steering are said to have advantages including:
- superior outdoor range performance;
- software-defined scan modes for increased and application-specific performance (range, field of view, frame rate, resolution) only where it matters;
- reduced multipath effects, resulting in better point cloud quality;
- optimization of illumination across the field of view in high ambient light levels and for varying levels of reflectivity;
- significantly improved interference mitigation from other sensors;
- high power density in a small form factor.
“Combined with Lumentum’s high-performance, multi-junction VCSEL technology, the LCM beam-steering technology from Lumotive allows customers to implement true solid-state, VCSEL-based LiDAR with software-definable characteristics in a compact package,” says Matt Everett, senior director of product line managment at Lumentum's Imaging and Sensing business unit. “The M30 Reference Design provides outstanding performance and the ability to dynamically adjust the field-of-view (FoV) and region of interest.”
With early versions currently being evaluated by several leading LiDAR systems developers, tier-1 automotive suppliers, and industrial OEMs, the M30 Reference Design with enhanced performance and optimized for volume manufacturing is expected to be available by mid-2023.
Lumentum launches multi-junction addressable VCSEL arrays for long-range LiDAR
