Photobears: LIDAR Industry Seminar: Photonic technologies for LIDAR sensors in autonomous and ADAS applications

From fleets to commercial vehicles, there are a growing number of new and existing technologies that are important for the development of a fully autonomous vehicle. Aside from traditional sensors such as cameras, ultrasonic, and radar, LIDAR technologies are becoming the key enabler in the fusion of sensors needed to achieve higher levels of autonomous control (levels 4/5). Today, there are already multiple designs of LIDAR systems whose key components are photonic devices such as light sources, photodetectors, and MEMS mirrors. This presentation will provide an overview of the tradeoffs for LIDAR vs. competing sensor technologies (camera, radar, and ultrasonic) that re-enforce the need for sensor fusion, as well as summarize and compare various mechanical and solid state LIDAR designs. Guidelines for selecting photonic components such as photodetectors, light sources, and MEMS mirrors will also be discussed.

Speaker: Jake Li, Hamamatsu