Partnership Develops Coherent Detection-Based LiDAR Platforms

Aug. 29, 2023

This advanced FMCW LiDAR platform integrates indie’s Surya SoC and SiLC’s Eyeonic vision sensor.

This article is part of the TechXchange: LiDAR Technology.

Addressing the need for advanced sensor solutions in automotive ADAS, robotics, and industrial automation designs, as well as other demanding autonomous applications, indie Semiconductor and SiLC Technologies are partnering to create coherent detection-based LiDAR platforms.

The joint effort will deliver fully integrated vision-system platforms using frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) detection, which delivers multiple real-world benefits compared to direct detection-based time-of-flight (ToF) solutions. These advantages include long-range operation with high precision and interference immunity, as well as per-point instantaneous velocity and motion measurement. Products from indie and SiLC will be integrated into reference platforms targeting sensing performance, manufacturability, power consumption, form factor, and cost relative to competing systems.

“indie is excited to partner with SiLC to bring the processing innovation from Surya to FMCW LiDAR, offering a breakthrough reference design,” said Chet Babla, senior vice president, strategic marketing, at indie Semiconductor. “By combining the software-defined high-performance—but low power—analog and digital processing and system control capabilities of Surya, coupled with SiLC’s Eyeonic vision solution, system integrators and OEMs are enabled with 4D FMCW imaging for mass market deployment into multiple applications.”

Ralf Muenster, vice president, business development and marketing at SiLC, added, “We are excited to partner with indie to bring industry-leading FMCW-based LiDAR platforms to market. Our state-of-the-art FMCW LiDAR sensor features the highest integration, resolution, precision, and longest range of any other competing approach, while remaining the only commercially available solution to offer polarization information.”

Reference platforms featuring Surya and Eyeonic have already been deployed and are undergoing evaluation by select customers. Both indie and SiLC are actively developing new reference platforms to showcase the scalability and flexibility of these combined technologies.

Read more articles in the TechXchange: LiDAR Technology.

Alix Paultre | Editor-at-Large, Electronic Design

An Army veteran, Alix Paultre was a signals intelligence soldier on the East/West German border in the early ‘80s, and eventually wound up helping launch and run a publication on consumer electronics for the US military stationed in Europe. Alix first began in this industry in 1998 at Electronic Products magazine, and since then has worked for a variety of publications in the embedded electronic engineering space. Alix currently lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Also check out his YouTube watch-collecting channel, Talking Timepieces.