Insight Photonic Solutions’ subsidiary Insight LiDAR has announced the highest resolution FMCW LiDAR sensor for autonomous vehicles.

The ultra-high-resolution, long-range LiDAR sensor integrates critical technologies to deliver a low-cost, chip-scale LiDAR.

The low-cost LiDAR has the sensitivity to range low-reflectivity objects at over 200m and puts ten to 20 times more pixels on objects, allowing fast and accurate identifications.

The Digital Coherent LiDAR is built with direct Doppler velocity, a true solid-state fast-axis scanner, software-defined foveation, chip-scale architecture and immunity.

Insight LiDAR CEO Michael Minneman said: “Perception for autonomous vehicles is a really difficult problem. In the case of LiDAR, you really can’t pick and choose which system specifications you want to meet. In order to deliver safe, effective point clouds for the perception team, there are 20 or more really critical specs that all need to be met simultaneously.

“They have to be met in an architecture that can be scaled up for low-cost production in the millions of units. That’s exactly what we’ve been able to put together based on over 12 years of technology development.”

Insight LiDAR said its technology enables large increases of the pixel count, while simultaneously offering direct velocity information.

The company’s patent portfolio covers the design and control of the laser source, critical for the FMCW detection technique, as well as the key system intellectual property that enables Insight’s high-resolution, foveation, large field of view and long-range performance.

Insight LiDAR’s Digital Coherent LiDAR uses FMCW detection and its akinetic swept-laser source to deliver better performances in a low-cost chip-scale package. Its compact architecture drives down the semiconductor cost curve.