Lumotive Develops Tiny Meta-Lidar Platform

November 29, 2021

Blog

According to the company, the Meta-Lidar Platform represents the industry’s smallest solid-state 3D sensing solution.

Aimed at a host of applications, including automotive, industrial, and consumer/mass market, the Lumotive sensor comprises a tiny lidar device with patented beam steering technology, software-defined scan modes, and a reference system design.

The heart of the sensor is Lumotive’s scalable light-control Metasurface silicon chips (LCMs), which are manufactured in a standard CMOS semiconductor process, which is how the company can keep the devices cost-effective and scalable to various sizes, performance levels, and power requirements.

Dubbed the M30, the sensor offers a 10- to 20-m range, a 120- by 90-degree field of view, and a 640- by-480 resolution. The small size, less than 1 cm3, allows it to be integrated into vehicles and robots. Unlike vehicle navigation systems that require long range lidar to detect objects at ranges of 200 meters or more, other mobility and AR applications require less powerful lasers that can scale to smaller sizes, and provide lower costs and less energy consumption. But the traditional approaches that use moving-mirror assemblies are unable to scale.

The scalability is enabled by the LCM solid-state beam steering chips, which reduce the size of lidar systems while improving performance and fidelity. Manufactured in a CMOS semiconductor process, the LCM chips eliminate the need for mechanical moving parts. LCM technology enables software-defined lidar capability, allowing the lidar scan pattern, frame rate and resolution to be customized for specific use cases.

The Lumotive Meta-Lidar Platform is expected to be in commercial production by the end of 2022.