Focuslight Technology deploys in the field of intelligent driving LiDAR

The 4th Focuslight Laser Application Industry Forum was successfully held in the Xi'an Focuslight Technology Co., Ltd. The forum was born in 2015. After four sessions of careful construction, it has become an important industry-university-research exchange platform for domestic high-power semiconductor lasers and micro-optics industries.

With the theme of "Innovation and Cooperation", this forum invited more than 300 well-known experts, business representatives and industry media from China, Germany, South Korea, the United States and other parts of the world to exchange and discuss the development trends of laser industry technology and innovative application results. The forum agenda includes the main forum discussion, automotive and information technology sub-forum, medical health sub-forum and advanced manufacturing sub-forum, and more than 20 wonderful reports were shared. As an annual event in the field of high-power semiconductor lasers and micro-optical applications, this event once again attracted the attention of the entire industry.

Under the trend of multi-sensor fusion, the prospect of LiDAR is affirmed

At this forum, Han Zhuowei, product manager of the autonomous driving engineering department of Bosch Chassis Control Systems China, pointed out in his speech: For L2 autonomous driving, common systems such as traffic congestion assistance, integrated adaptive cruise control and highway assistance generally require 6 sensors, and the typical sensor configuration is five radars and one camera; when upgraded to L3 and L4, such as HWP (highway autonomous driving) and other solutions, the number of sensors will increase to 15 or more; and when further expanded to cities for autonomous driving, the number of sensors they need will be greater than 40. At present, some companies that do urban autonomous taxis generally use more than 40 sensors.

In other words, with the continuous advancement of intelligent driving, the number of on-board sensors is increasing rapidly. It is worth noting that the sensors here include but are not limited to lidar. Because the reality is that different sensors have different advantages and disadvantages, and currently, no sensor can be applied to all usage environments.

In response to this, Han Zhuowei further stated: In the future field of autonomous driving perception, we need to integrate different sensors that are safer, more reliable and have higher performance in order to establish better and more reliable perception of our environment, including cameras, millimeter-wave radars and lidars.

As for these three main sensors, Zhu Xican, professor at Tongji University and director of the Institute of Automotive Safety Technology, said that there is no problem with the status of millimeter-wave radar, because it can penetrate dust, fog, rain and snow, is not affected by bad weather, and it is very cheap; the camera is also irreplaceable, but although the camera has a shape, it is two-dimensional and the recognition accuracy is insufficient; the laser radar has a longer detection distance and can accurately obtain three-dimensional information of objects, and has strong recognition and measurement capabilities, while millimeter-wave radar and monocular cameras are lacking in these two aspects.

However, LiDAR is obviously not perfect and has its weaknesses, such as being easily affected by extreme weather such as rain and snow. But overall, its market potential is still considerable. According to the forecast of Yole, a research organization, the global LiDAR market application scale will reach US$6.3 billion in 2023. In response to this forecast data, Li Yong, deputy general manager of the automotive business unit of Xi'an Focus Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that this is a huge market opportunity for the laser and optical industries, which is an important reason why Focus Technology has positioned LiDAR as a strategic market.

Mainstream technology routes for LiDAR and its core component lasers
LiDAR has a promising future. What are the mainstream technology routes? Li Yong of Juguan Technology pointed out that since Juguan Technology began to layout the automotive LiDAR market in 2016, this emerging market field with hundreds of contending technology routes has also been rapidly eliminating the weak and retaining the true. Now, it can be clearly seen that there are three mainstream technology routes in this market:

1. Scanning radar. "This type of product solution is the mainstream solution at present. We believe that it will be used in large quantities, but it is mainly used in commercial fleets, RobotTaxi and other scenarios. The main reasons are: first, the cost is relatively high and complex, and the reliability is difficult to meet the requirements of vehicle regulations. Second, it is not beautiful and private cars are not easy to accept it."

2. MEMS LiDAR. As an upgrade of mechanical rotating scanning LiDAR, MEMS LiDAR, a solid-state radar, has also been deployed in large quantities. "This solution will definitely go into mass production now, because it is a technical solution that most manufacturers will use now, and unlike scanning radar, MEMS solid-state LiDAR has the advantages of reliability and manufacturability, and will be mass-produced in passenger cars. We speculate that passenger cars with this radar will be announced for mass production next year."

3. Flash Lidar. "There are not many of this type of radar on the market now, and it is not the most mainstream solution. However, the companies that make this product are all large companies or very innovative companies. Because Flash Lidar has high energy requirements and many technical challenges, it has its natural advantages, namely high resolution and no delay. Of course, Flash Lidar is not intended to replace the first two solutions, but a supplementary technology and a new technical direction."

As a leading company in the field of lasers and micro-optics, Juguan Technology focused on introducing and discussing the technical route comparison between lasers and optics as core components of LiDAR systems at this forum. Li Yong of Juguan Technology pointed out in his speech that there are currently four main solutions for lasers used in LiDAR:

1. 905nm pulsed laser diode (PLD). This is the most mainstream solution at present. The reliability of the laser itself and its mass production and delivery are no problem. It is now also used in large quantities in LiDAR. Scanning LiDAR basically adopts this solution.

2. Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL). Apple has used VCSEL for face recognition since the 10th generation of mobile phones. Since then, the VCSEL industry has been driven, and LiDAR has also begun to use VCSEL as a light source. VCSEL can achieve a series of wavelengths such as 905 and 1550. Due to its relatively low price, high reliability, and sufficient production capacity, it is expected to become one of the mainstream solutions for LiDAR in the future.

3. Fiber laser. The industrial market demand for fiber laser is very large, and the production line chain is relatively mature, but it is mainly used for industrial processing. At present, some companies at home and abroad have used fiber lasers, but this solution is relatively complex and costly for laser radar vehicle applications, and only a few manufacturers adopt it. This solution may not become the mainstream in the future, and may not be mass-produced.

4. Solid-state lasers. Solid-state lasers are the most mature technology among all laser categories. Although they are also more complex than 905nm PLD and VCSEL, due to the Flash Lidar technology route, solid-state lasers can provide the high energy and high power required by Flash Lidar, so solid-state lasers will definitely have a place in technology and the market, and will become a mainstream technology path.

The technical route of LiDAR and its lasers is becoming clearer, but to truly make products, it is still inseparable from the support of upstream products and technologies, such as micro-optics for laser shaping. Li Yong of Focuslight Technology pointed out that different technical routes and different light sources require different micro-optics, but no matter which technical route, Focuslight Technology's German subsidiary LIMO has corresponding solutions.

According to reports, LIMO is the world's leading supplier of micro-optics, providing refractive micro-optics and optical shaping systems for various types of lasers and laser systems. It is worth mentioning that it applies the design and production capabilities of 3D free-form surfaces to the manufacturing of various micro-optical products, producing optical devices with various free-form surface shapes to meet customer needs in the fields of sensing and imaging and various laser applications. In addition, it produces optical components based on the mass production of wafers, and can process and produce thousands of lenses on a substrate circle, achieving economical and efficient production, and introducing digital control systems in the production process to continuously ensure the quality of the products. At present, LIMO is already supporting multiple LiDAR customers in the development of optical solutions, and some projects are already in small-scale trial production.

In 2017, Focuslight Technology announced the completion of its acquisition of Germany's LIMO. By combining Focuslight Technology's semiconductor laser packaging technology with LIMO's world-leading micro-optics and beam shaping technology, Focuslight Technology can provide customers with highly customized laser solutions, a diversified product portfolio and more functional customized services.

At this forum, Li Yong focused on introducing an innovative laser radar light source product under Focuslight Technology - megawatt-level high peak power solid laser radar light source product technology, which is mainly suitable for Flash Lidar laser solutions. At the same time, it can also be used for other types of radars in combination with different optical solutions.