The Marketing Minute: Staying Positive When the Market Isn’t
Marcy’s Musings: Continuing to Invent the Future With SEL
It’s Only Common Sense: Why Failure Is an Opportunity for Growth
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).
Share on:
Testimonial
"In a year when every marketing dollar mattered, I chose to keep I-Connect007 in our 2025 plan. Their commitment to high-quality, insightful content aligns with Koh Young’s values and helps readers navigate a changing industry. "
Brent Fischthal - Koh YoungSuggested Items
Entegris Announces Plans for $700 Million Investment in the United States, Technology Center in Illinois
08/22/2025 | BUSINESS WIREEntegris, Inc., a global leader in advanced materials science, in collaboration with the Trump Administration, announced $700 million in domestic R&D spending over the next several years to accelerate semiconductor innovation.
izmomicro Achieves Breakthrough in Silicon Photonics Packaging, Establishing India's Leadership in Advanced Semiconductor Integration
08/21/2025 | PRNewswireizmomicro, a specialized division of izmo Ltd., announced a major milestone in silicon photonics packaging, underscoring its role as a pioneer in India's semiconductor ecosystem and advancing the country's position in the global race toward next-generation data and AI infrastructure.
Indium Corporation to Showcase Innovative Materials Enabling AI Technology at SEMICON Taiwan
08/20/2025 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation®, a leading materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, AI, thin-film, and thermal management markets, will showcase its heterogeneous integration and assembly (HIA) products and thermal interface materials (TIMs) at SEMICON Taiwan, to be held September 10-12 in Taipei, Taiwan.
TRI: Discover SEMI Inspection and Metrology at SEMICON India 2025
08/20/2025 | TRITest & Research India PVT, LTD. (T&R India), TRI's distributor, will join SEMICON India 2025 at Yashobhoomi (IICC), New Delhi, India from September 2 – 4, 2025.
Koh Young Showcases Advanced Dimensional Metrology and Inspection Solutions for Semiconductor and Wafer-Level Packaging at SEMICON India
08/20/2025 | Koh YoungKoh Young, the industry leader in True 3D™ measurement-based dimensional metrology and inspection solutions, will present its latest advancements for semiconductor and advanced packaging applications in Hall 1 Booth 1086 during SEMICON India 2025 held September 2-4, 2025, at Yashobhoomi (IICC), New Delhi, India.