Quanergy develops $500 solid-state lidar

According to foreign media futurecar, Quanergy, a lidar startup from Silicon Valley, recently announced the development of a new solid-state lidar called S3, which uses phased array technology and has completed detection tests within a range of 100 meters.

The S3 solid-state lidar launched by Quanergy is the first in the industry to adopt optical phased array technology. It will use a scalable SOI CMOS manufacturing process and will be mass-produced in the future.

The company said that in the future, this technology will not only be used in the autonomous driving systems of cars, but will also be used in more IoT service areas.

1. The first phased array technology was used to complete the 100-meter ranging test

The test was conducted jointly by Quanergy and Zero Electric Vehicle (ZEV), an innovative sustainable energy company from Arizona, USA.

Quanergy chose to conduct the test in the daytime with good lighting conditions. The test vehicle was equipped with a single scanning beam lidar unit and a camera component for observation. During the test, the test vehicle kept following the target vehicle and constantly changed the following distance, with the longest following distance reaching 100 meters.

▲The radar is detecting road conditions

In order to test the performance of the hardware when driving at night and encountering dark-colored vehicles, Quanergy deliberately used objects with a radar reflectivity of only 10% as the detected targets to simulate this situation.

When illuminated by the lidar, light-colored vehicles can reflect more electromagnetic waves than dark-colored vehicles, so it is easier for the lidar to detect light-colored vehicles, and dark-colored vehicles are more difficult to be detected.

The S3 solid-state LiDAR released by Quanergy is the industry's first product using phased array technology. Phased array technology was first used in the military field. This technology generates electromagnetic waves with controllable directions by controlling the signal phase changes of each unit.

Compared with traditional lidar, phased array radar can change the emission direction of electromagnetic waves without rotating the radar itself. It has the characteristics of short response time, large data volume and high reliability.

▲Schematic diagram of the working principle of phased array radar

Quanergy co-founder Tianyue Yu said that this test is the first attempt in the industry, and they are very excited about it. They will continue to work hard to achieve greater goals and hope to increase the detection distance of this radar to 200 meters in the future.

2. The trouble-free time exceeds 100,000 hours and will be mass-produced

Quanergy hopes that the S3 solid-state lidar can not only meet basic functions such as road ranging and object detection, but also has a certain degree of damage resistance, aiming to reduce users' subsequent maintenance costs.

Since the radar uses phased array technology, the body adopts an integrated design. The entire radar is wrapped in a cylinder without any rotatable or movable components. Compared with previous laser radars, this "iron lump" design has higher internal reliability and external damage resistance.

▲The radar design is very simple

After testing by Quanergy, the radar's mean time between failures (MTBF) reached more than 100,000 hours.

MTBF refers to the average continuous failure-free time of a product during operation or testing, and is an industry-recognized indicator for measuring the reliability of electronic products.

In addition, the S3 will adopt SOI CMOS production technology to achieve the goal of low-cost mass production. Currently, Quanergy has priced the radar at US$500 (about RMB 3,200).

According to data from Kaiyuan Securities Research Institute, the average selling price of global LiDAR modules in 2020 is RMB 5,200, which is almost the same as the current price of Quanergy S3. However, don't forget that this is a radar equipped with phased array technology.

Conclusion: LiDAR usage scenarios continue to expand

Quanergy was founded in 2012. Its business mainly involves optics, photonics and artificial intelligence software. But in terms of lidar, Quanergy can be regarded as a rising star. The company is currently preparing to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange through SPAC, and the transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

Compared with other competitors in the lidar industry, Quanergy seems to be more ambitious. The company not only wants to get a piece of the hot autonomous driving field, but also aims at the application field of the Internet of Things and wants to show its prowess in this field.

The company has already reached a cooperation with PARIFEX, a French smart city solution provider, to provide software and hardware support for speed measurement and remote enforcement for French highways. In addition, the company has also reached an agreement with companies from China and South Korea to jointly deepen commercial cooperation in the field of the Internet of Things.