Tower Semiconductor Announces Breakthrough LiDAR Technology
September 13, 2021 | Globe NewswireEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Tower Semiconductor, the leading foundry for high-value analog semiconductor solutions, today announced a breakthrough development of LiDAR IC technology designed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and ultimately self-driving cars. The new, innovative IC designed by researchers from the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering was led by SungWon Chung and manufactured using Tower Semiconductor’s industry-leading open foundry Silicon Photonics platform. It employs optical phased arrays – hundreds of compact optical antennas -- along with amplitude and phase modulators on a silicon chip for accurate 3D imaging of the surrounding environment without the need for any moving parts. Additionally, the field of view, resolution, scanning pattern, and scanning speed are all programmable, meaning that cars outfitted with this system can respond much better to real-world scenarios.
Tower Semiconductor’s PH18 Silicon Photonics platform offers a rich set of optical components including ultra-high bandwidth modulators, and photodetectors, serving the demand in data center and infrastructure optical communication markets. This platform also offers high-performance elements necessary for high-precision LiDAR applications, such as low-loss silicon nitride waveguides capable of handling larger optical powers.
The LiDAR IC, operating at a human-eye friendly 1550nm wavelength uses continuous wave frequency modulation (FMCW) making it more resilient to environmental brightness and interferences from other LiDARs in a congested driving environment.
“We are proud to collaborate on this innovative and fundamental breakthrough LiDAR technology which is a step towards making safe autonomous vehicles and robots a reality. Tower believes that only through such pathbreaking scientific research today we can enable engineering solutions for tomorrow,” said Dr. Ed Preisler, Director of RF & HPA Technology Development, Tower Semiconductor.
The research for this was documented in the 2021 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.
In addition to the mutual work done with Tower Semiconductor, this research at USC was partially supported by Toyota Central R & D Corporation (TCRDL), Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the USC Pratt and Whitney Institute for Collaborative Engineering (PWICE at USC).
Suggested Items
ZESTRON Academy Launches 2024 Advanced Packaging & Power Electronics Webinar Series
05/01/2024 | ZESTRONZESTRON, the leading global provider of high-precision cleaning products, services, and training solutions in the electronics manufacturing and semiconductor industries, proudly announces the launch of its highly anticipated webinar series on Advanced Packaging & Power Electronics, a webinar series on the latest innovations, cleaning, and corrosion challenges.
Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments Dip 5% in Q1 2024
05/01/2024 | SEMIWorldwide silicon wafer shipments decreased 5.4% quarter-over-quarter to 2,834 million square inches in the first quarter of 2024, a 13.2% drop from the 3,265 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
Guerrilla RF Completes Strategic Acquisition of GaN Device Portfolio from Gallium Semiconductor
04/29/2024 | BUSINESS WIREGuerrilla RF, Inc. has finalized the acquisition of Gallium Semiconductor's entire portfolio of GaN power amplifiers and front-end modules. Effective April 26th, 2024, GUER acquired all previously released components as well as new cores under development at Gallium Semiconductor.
SIA Commends CHIPS Act Incentives for Micron’s Manufacturing Projects in New York and Idaho
04/29/2024 | SIAThe Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today released the following statement from SIA President and CEO John Neuffer applauding semiconductor manufacturing incentives announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Micron.
iNEMI Packaging Tech Topic Series: Role of EDA in Advanced Semiconductor Packaging
04/26/2024 | iNEMIAdvanced semiconductor packaging with heterogenous integration has made on-package integration of multiple chips a crucial part of finding alternatives to transistor scaling. Historically, EDA tools for front-end and back-end design have evolved separately; however, design complexity and the increased number of die-to-die or die-to-substrate interconnections has led to the need for EDA tools that can support integration of overall design planning, implementation, and system analysis in a single cockpit.