Monday, January 11, 2021

Intel leverages silicon photonics for Mobileye's lidar system-on-chip

Mobileye, a division of Intel, unveiled a new silicon photonics processor for frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar. The new device, which was engineered at Intel’s silicon photonics fab in New Mexico, is expected to be in production by 2025. 

Mobileye envisions that AVs will use both radio- and light-based detection-and-ranging sensing.

The new software-defined imaging radar technology with 2304 channels, 100DB dynamic range and 40 DBc side lobe level that together enable the radar to build a sensing state good enough for driving policy supporting autonomous driving. 

“This is really game-changing. And we call this a photonic integrated circuit, PIC. It has 184 vertical lines, and then those vertical lines are moved through optics. Having fabs that are able to do that, that’s very, very rare. So this gives Intel a significant advantage in building these lidars,” stated Mobileye president and chief executive officer Amnon Shashua.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/ces-2021-mobileye-avs-on-move/