Ouster launches first all-solid-state lidar sensor

According to foreign media reports, Ouster, a high-resolution lidar sensor company, announced the launch of a truly high-performance solid-state lidar sensor - ES2. This lidar sensor is built on its digital lidar architecture. By applying a VCSEL laser chip and a SPAD detector chip, ES2 has achieved significant improvements in resolution, detection distance and reliability.

(Image source: Ouster)

Ouster said the ES2 lidar sensor will be the first true solid-state, high-resolution, long-range digital lidar. When it debuts, the lidar is expected to cost $600 and is suitable for mass-produced car projects in 2024. In addition, the lidar can detect 200 meters away on a surface with a reflectivity of 10%, making it a low-cost product suitable for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and industrial automation applications.

The ES2 LiDAR sensor uses "electronic scanning" to continuously fire more than 10,000 laser beams, all onto a single chip. Its lasers are combined with a customized digital detector array to count trillions of photons per second.

Ouster said that such laser and detector arrays are the core technology of its OS series rotating lidar sensors and consumer devices such as iPhone and iPad Pro, and ES2 shares 86% of its components with OS series lidar, thus greatly reducing the technical and production risks. There are tens of thousands of lasers on the chip, each of which is fixed to a different position in the field of view, without moving parts, to achieve the detection range, field of view and resolution requirements of high-performance autonomous vehicle customers.

The ES2 solid-state lidar sensor will be produced on a mass production line at Ouster's overseas manufacturing facility, while research and development work will be carried out at the San Francisco headquarters. Samples of the sensor will be delivered to key customers and partners in 2022, and mass production is expected to begin in 2024.

Ouster said that in addition to automotive and ADAS applications, the ES2 can also be used in industries such as robotics, industrial automation applications and smart infrastructure.