Challenge
LiDAR was invented in the 1960s and has been used in everything from space missions to atmospheric and environmental mapping. However, expanding its range of applications requires scaling down and scaling up the necessary hardware, making LiDAR more accessible and affordable to help solve societal challenges.
Opportunity
The LiDAR market is predicted to be worth over $15 billion in the next few years. The biggest potential for LiDAR applications includes autonomous vehicles, robotics, consumer electronics, and industrial sensing. Autonomous vehicles are seen as having the most potential for LiDAR, but the main issues holding back widespread adoption are making the technology smaller, more robust, and longer range.
Solution
While many LiDAR-based autonomous vehicle applications rely on a single system with multiple sensors, this mission focuses on developing photonic chips that enable a monolithic solid-state platform.
Benefits
Solid-state LiDAR reduces production costs and integrates more easily with other components, enabling smaller and higher-performance systems. These systems can accurately measure an object’s speed, shape, and position, supporting a wide range of sensing applications.
