Tag: autonomous systems

Fix the Optical Subsystem, Fix LiDAR

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ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo

Fix the Optical Subsystem, Fix LiDAR

While extremely promising, today’s optical subsystems for LiDAR remain fragile, large, expensive to build and maintain, overly susceptible to environmental conditions, and inconsistent in their performance. Fortunately, we can reach the full potential of LiDAR by fixing the optical subsystems on which LiDAR systems rely.

With experience that spans core sensor development and systems integration at companies such as Tesla, Argo AI, and Google X Project Wing, Omnitron Sensors Co-founder & CEO Eric Aguilar learned first-hand what automotive integrators need for affordable, reliable, long-range LiDAR systems. Join Eric for his presentation, Fix the Optical Subsystem, Fix LiDAR, on September 21, 2023 at 1:45 p.m. at the 2023 ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo & Conference (September 20-21 in Santa Clara, California).

During his presentation, Eric will review the pros and cons of today’s optical subsystems and will introduce a new, cost-effective MEMS scanning mirror for LiDAR that ticks all the boxes for automotive integrators and manufacturers.

You’ll learn more about:

• The role that the optical subsystem in LiDAR plays in ADAS and autonomous systems
• Automotive industry requirements for optical subsystems for LiDAR
• The top 3 issues with existing optical subsystems for LiDAR—Voice Coil, spinning polygon, Galvo
• The great potential—and challenges—of MEMS mirrors
• The problem-solver: first mass-produced low-cost, rugged, reliable MEMS scanning mirror

Hear from Eric and 70+ other expert speakers exploring key topics around the development and testing of safe autonomous driving and ADAS technologies, including software, AI and deep learning, sensor fusion, virtual environments, verification and validation of autonomous systems, testing and development tools and technologies, real-world word testing and deployment, and standards and regulations.

Get your free expo pass or register for the conference today. Or, if you’d like to learn more about Omnitron Sensors but aren’t able to attend, please contact us.

Why Isn’t LiDAR in Every Autonomous Navigation System?

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The mechanical engineer Karl Friedrich Benz invented the first motor car powered by a gasoline combustion engine in 1884/1885. Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach and other pioneering inventors of early motor cars would have been hard-pressed to imagine modern cars, many of which offer advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that improve automotive safety, independent of the operator.

Karl Friedrich Benz’s Benz Patent-Motorwagen, circa 1885/86

The possibility of fully self-driving cars, self-flying cargo planes, and package-delivery drones would have seemed even more far-fetched to these 19th-century engineers. But as 21st-century engineers, we recognize that ADAS, robotic cars, drones, and industrial robotics—all applications featuring some level of autonomous functionality—are not pie-in-the-sky imaginings. And the key to realizing them commercially is the perfection of LiDAR.

LiDAR—which stands for light detection and ranging—is essential to autonomous navigation. In fact, it does so much more than the more mature vision technologies, cameras and radar, which are also used in autonomous systems. Only LiDAR provides depth and functions seamlessly at all levels of light. It also delivers phenomenal resolution, so it can perceive both moving and stationary objects—another critical advantage over cameras and radar.

Given LiDAR’s technical strengths, why isn’t it ubiquitous?

As a sensor IP company with an executive team that also has years of experience with LiDAR, we’ve given this a lot of thought. And we’d like to share this with you.

Read Omnitron CEO Eric Aguilar’s article in EE Times, Want Better Autonomous Navigation? Start with LiDAR.

Or email us today for more information.

And if you’re interested in the history of the automobile, check out this Library of Congress page.

Innovation in MEMS Starts with Its Topology

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The first iPhone rolled out in mid-2007. It had a single MEMS device—a 3-axis accelerometer—and one each of a simple proximity sensor and ambient light sensor. The iPhone 14, on the other hand, has multiple MEMS microphones, a LiDAR sensor for face recognition, a high dynamic-range gyro and high-g accelerometer, a barometric pressure sensor, a haptic touch sensor, a proximity sensor and dual ambient light sensors. While approximately $1B of the $6+B overall MEMS market came from consumer and mobile in 2007, analysts predict that by 2026, $11.27B of the overall $18.2B will come from consumer and mobile.

That’s just consumer and mobile, of course. The first major commercial MEMS design was an Analog Devices accelerometer used in automotive crash-detection air bags in the mid-1990s. And now, MEMS technology is ubiquitous in automotive advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and will soon become the core enabling component in LiDAR sensors.

Still, given the many attributes of MEMS, why hasn’t its growth trajectory mirrored that of the semiconductor industry? MEMS, after all, offers unprecedented sensory intelligence in a small package, making it highly attractive for almost every application.

We’ve asked ourselves why MEMS hasn’t come farther, faster so many times over the years, and we’ve always come to the same conclusion: The slow growth of MEMS has nothing to do with its capabilities and everything to do with its manufacturing challenges. Solving those challenges was a catalyst for launching Omnitron Sensors.

At Omnitron we’ve developed a new topology for MEMS. We started by developing test structures and process steps with our foundry partners. We forged ahead to make significant improvements in capacitance to produce robust, rugged devices. The good news is that we’ve verified our process through fabrication, and are on the path to build hundreds of millions of low-cost, reliable, repeatable MEMS devices at commercial MEMS foundries.

Interested in learning more? On May 23, 2023, our co-founder & CEO, Eric Aguilar, will present Omnitron’s new topology for MEMS at MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress 2023, SEMI’s annual technical event on designing, building, and using sensors. MSTC is a phenomenal event for technical execs and engineers who want to learn about the latest innovations in MEMS technology. Register now.

If you can’t attend MSTC but would like more information on Omnitron, email us today.

Connect with CEO Eric Aguilar at MSTC 2023

And other MEMS & sensors industry technical execs

Register today