A number of strategies being used to generate solid state designs include Optical Phased Arrays, MEMS micro-mirror modules, Flash laser and Liquid Crystal Waveguide beam steering technologies for LiDAr for autonomous vehicles reports Strategy Analytics. Other technologies being used to enhance sensor performance include Frequency Modulation, “Optical RADAR”, Silicon Photomultipliers and tunable lasers.
The kind of sensor module being developed will be compact and vendors claim could be priced at $250 each or lower. The restricted Field of View will mean that the first deployments will be a forward-facing single sensor for semi-autonomous driving applications, such as highway cruise control, and a four-corner sensor configuration, to enable 360-degree sensing for fully-autonomous vehicles.
Another result of these new LiDAR developments is the emergence of new players in automotive, including start-up and Internet companies, such as Waymo (Google), with their own autonomous vehicle developments.
A number of investments and partnerships have also occurred. Kevin Mak, Senior Analyst at the Automotive Practice of Strategy Analytics, said, “Such development and investment would be worthwhile, given that the size of the high resolution LiDAR market will reach $1.6B by 2024. To put this into perspective, the market value for low resolution LiDARs for emergency braking systems in 2016 was only $157M.”
A number of strategies being used to generate solid state designs include Optical Phased Arrays, MEMS micro-mirror modules, Flash laser and Liquid Crystal Waveguide beam steering technologies. Other technologies being used to enhance sensor performance include Frequency Modulation, “Optical RADAR”, Silicon Photomultipliers and tunable lasers.
The kind of sensor module being developed will be compact and vendors claim could be priced at $250 each or lower. The restricted Field of View will mean that the first deployments will be a forward-facing single sensor for semi-autonomous driving applications, such as highway cruise control, and a four-corner sensor configuration, to enable 360-degree sensing for fully-autonomous vehicles.
The Strategy Analytics report, “Solid State Designs To Emerge In High Resolution LiDARs For Autonomous Vehicles”, comments on the latest developments that use solid state designs to bring about more affordable and more compact LiDAR sensors.
The report covers
- Current mechanical scanning designs from Velodyne, Valeo, Ibeo, RoboSense and others.
- Solid state designs by optical phased arrays -Quanergy.
- MEMS micro-mirrors made by Fujitsu, Innoluce and AEye.
- Flash lasers from LeddarTech, Continental, Innoviz, TetraVue and Facet.
- Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave.
- Liquid Crystal Waveguide.
- Optical RADAR.
- Silicon Photomultipliers.
- Forecasts.