Continental, Valeo, Velodyne, Innoviz, LeddarTech, Ouster, Infineon, Jenoptik , Fraunhofer IMS, Osram Opto Semiconductors as lidar players, OEMs Ford, Renault, PSA, lighting players Hella, Valeo, Koito, ZKW, and VEDECOM, Optis, Yole developpement made a lecture at the DVN Conference on lidar which was held last week in Frankfort.
KeyNote
Continental’s Heiko Leppin started explaining the principle of lidar:
It sends out light, detects returned reflection, and calculates distance from the measured delay. methods to detect the time of flight (ToF) include: Trigger on level, Sample amplitude, Measure phase, Measure varying polarisation, and Measure varying carrier frequency (FMCW).
Two of the three key components to a lidar are lasers and beam steering apparatus.
Lasers come in a variety of configurations. First, there are edge-emitting diodes. These have a horizontal cavity. The faces have to be coated after cleaving. The long cavity length means high power, and the stripe shape gives an oval light profile.