Optical Radiators Improve the Precision of Lidar by 10 Times

The faculty of Physics, Nanotechnology and Electronics of the State University of Technology in Saint Petersburg, in collaboration with the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Technology, have jointly developed optical radiators that will increase the accuracy of laser radar up to 10 times. This speed increase can be used to scan shorter optical pulses in modern radiators.

Optical radar scan pulse shorter duration, the greater the power, the radar range and accuracy of the higher, only improve the laser radiators accuracy, can improve the radar performance. "We have reduced the pulse duration while maintaining the pulse power and greatly increased the range and accuracy of the radar, which required the development of a new element substrate and the use of a completely new electronic structure", St. Petersburg State Technical Physics Physics Alexey Filimonov, head of the department, pointed out. The new optical radiator is a chip with a matching head size that can be used with standard LED housings or lasers. It is 5 times smaller than the pulse duration of similar devices currently in use. The chip itself can be manufactured entirely in Russia using the original method of layered metal-insulator structure technology and electronic component placement.

Scientists presented their findings at the 16th International Conference on IoT, Smart Space and Next Generation Networks and Systems (NEW2AN 2016) held in September 2016. "IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices" describes the fundamentals of the device Reported. Now scientists are looking for partners in the domestic business and scientific community to make laboratory prototypes into industrial designs. Scientists introduced the research and development can be widely used in automotive, aircraft construction, shipbuilding, optical detection and a variety of automatic recognition of the surrounding environment system (computer vision system). As a result, optical radar, also known as lidar, is one of the main components of autonomous vehicle electronics, and any improvements in its performance and cost reductions may lead to significant advances in the field of autonomous vehicles.