Lumotive and Lumentum Holdings have announced availability of the M30 Reference Design, a complete sensor implementation of their software-defined lidar solution. The design integrates Lumotive’s Light Control Metasurface (LCM) beam steering chips and Lumentum’s M52-100 multi-junction VCSEL array. Lumotive demonstrated the LCM beam steering technology at SPIE Photonics West 2023 in San Francisco.
Lumotive’s VP of Strategy and Partnership Rakinder Grover says the M30 Reference Design offers a software-definable lidar solution that meets the low power and small footprint requirements of short to long-range mobility and industrial applications. lidar sensors based on LCM electronic beam steering have several advantages over traditional flash illumination solutions, including improved outdoor range performance, software-defined scan modes, reduced multipath effects, and high power density in a small package.
Matt Everett, Senior Director of Product Line Management at Lumentum’s Imaging and Sensing Business Unit, says the M30 Reference Design provides outstanding performance and the ability to adjust the field-of-view and region of interest. The design is currently being evaluated by several leading lidar developers; tier-1 automotive suppliers, and industrial OEMs. The solution with enhanced performance optimized for volume manufacturing is expected to be available by mid-2023.
DVN comment
We reported in our previous newsletter the announcement of the zero-inertia beam steering system LCM developed by Lumotive. This solution capable of arbitrary scan patterns allows a sensor to adapt to any situation. To provide a complete and efficient lidar source dedicated to long range applications, it was necessary to associate an adequate laser source. It is done through the M30 module which integrates both a LCM and a Lumentum’s VECSEL array. The association of a tuneable multi-light power source (Lumentum VECSEL) and the LCM structure expands the possibilities of this agile scanning system.
