Sense Photonics launches FLASH lidar for autonomous vehicles

According to foreign media reports, Sense Photonics, a lidar company known for its revolutionary solid-state FLASH architecture, has officially entered the automotive market and launched the first modular FLASH lidar for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving –  Osp rey. The component is priced at US$3,200 and is now available for pre-order.

The emergence of Osprey is an important automotive milestone, opening a new era of all-solid-state depth sensing. With a vertical field of view of 75 degrees, Osprey is very wide and dense, capable of detecting targets from the edge of the road to the horizon with high resolution. The lidar is designed as an easy-to-integrate module package that combines automotive-grade near-field sensors with the Sense Illu mi nator, a proprietary VCSEL laser array consisting of thousands of individual laser elements. Sense Photonics' automotive partners will use Osprey to test and develop the next generation of autonomous driving platforms with ultra-high performance and low cost.

Sense Photonics is working with a major global service provider on design for manufacturability to ensure that the manufacturing process for Osprey can meet the automotive industry's expectations in terms of quality and scalability. Sense Photonics is also actively working with a number of automotive partners, including an unnamed Tier 1 automotive supplier, multiple automotive OEMs, major autonomous driving projects, and German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon .

Osprey is the second lidar launched by Sense Photonics. In October last year, the company launched an industrial solid-state FLASH lidar system that raised the performance standard of high-resolution data output throughout the industry. In June last year, the company raised $26 million in Series A financing.