FMCW Chip-Scale LiDARs for Safer and Smarter Mobility of People and Goods

LiDAR sensors are key to ensure safety and efficiency of autonomous vehicles and mobile robotic systems. But current commercial LiDAR technologies cannot face the issues in terms of costs, reliability and form factors that are hindering widespread adoption. Steerlight, a CEA-Leti spin-off, develops a new generation of on-chip LiDARs that relies on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) and Silicon Photonics. FMCW provides instantaneous depth and velocity acquisition while Silicon Photonics enables the integration of the optical and electronics functionalities on a single chip. This paper will first describe the proposed silicon photonics based architecture. Subsequently, various demonstrations will illustrate the roadmap towards miniature and scalable LiDARs. Such features will contribute to making a wide range of devices smarter and safer, beyond the automotive and robotics markets.