According to reports, the history of radar (English name Radar, full name Radio Detection and Ranging) can be traced back to the 1980s, when the famous German physicist Heinrich Hertz demonstrated that the radio wave can be metal Object reflection. According to the principles of Hertz, German Engineers Hushesmeyer, for the first time, for the first time in 1906, for the first time in the sea navigation radar. Before the World War II, the R & D of the radar is fully launched in the purpose of air defense. With the advancement of semiconductor technology, radar is now widely used in a wide range of applications such as air traffic control to automotive blind spot detection. Attributed advances above, radar technology makes sea-landing journey more secure and efficient, has prevented hundreds of thousands of accidents.
The good news is that the technique of integrating complex electronic circuits into small silicon-based chips (now in household consumption products are now present) - silicon photonics. Silicon photomics make highly complex optical circuits to achieve economic effectively and integrate into the same extensive product and applications.
In order to achieve an affordable FMCW laser radar solution, all optical functions need to be integrated into a silicon-based chip that uses the same semiconductor process as the same as the total trillion electronic integrated circuit (IC) chip annually.
The semiconductor process refers to the level and precision reflected in the integrated circuit of manufacturing performance, providing maturity of robustness, economic efficiency and high-quality silicon photonic components. A very low noise, low loss and polarization-independent technique can be very high signal-to-noise ratio, so that lower laser power can be used. Therefore, even if the human beings are very close, people can guarantee human eye safety during remote detection. The object that detects a few centimeter sizes other than 200 meters should be within the capacity of IC-based FMCW laser radar. In January this year, Silc Technologies Inc. (hereinafter referred to as: SILC) demonstrates this solution. The company is now focused on optimizing its functions and achieves higher integration.
However, it is not easy to design silicon photonic circuits. Although they are based on standard integrated circuit manufacturing process, they need special processes, professional skills, and professional layout and verification knowledge. Fortunately, they can take advantage of $ 100 billion in investment in telecom and data center applications over the past decade.
Since the silicon photon circuit is small, the power is low, the cost is low, so it can also be widely used in the drone and robot. Silicon photon circuit only requires milliwatt-level output optical power, with high power efficiency. Efficiency is important for battery-driven machines. Silicon photon circuits can reach a high precision level of millimeters to micrometers, so it is possible to apply in biometric, industrial or healthcare.
In summary, the FMCW solution is more than four orders of peak laser power than the current pulse DTOF laser radar solution, which is based on measurement distance, instantaneous speed, environmental suppression, multi-user no interference operation, etc., and has integrated complete laser radar. The optics is the potential of a low-cost silicon photonic chip with very small size. The above advantages can change the application range of the laser radar, imagine that space is far from automatic driving.
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