Omnitron's MEMS Tech Boosts Lidar Reliability

Summary

Five years ago, Eric Aguilar was fed up.He had worked on lidar and other sensors for years at Tesla and Google X, but the technology always seemed too expensive and, more importantly, unreliable. He replaced the lidar sensors when they broke—which was all too often, and seemingly at random—and developed complex calibration methods and maintenance routines just to keep them functioning and the cars drivable.So, when he reached the end of his rope, he invented a more robust technology—what he calls the “most powerful micromachine ever made.”Aguilar and his team at startup Omnitron Sensors developed new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology that he claims can produce more force per unit area than any other. By supplying new levels of power to micromirrors, the technology is capable of precisely steering lidar’s laser beams, even while weathering hazardous elements and the bumps and bangs of the open road. With chips under test by auto-industry customers, Omnitron is now modifying the technology to reduce the power consumed by AI data centers.Lidar, a scanning and detection system that uses lasers to determine how far away objects are, is often adopted by self-driving cars to find obstacles and navigate. Even as the market for lidar is expected to grow by 13.6 percent annually, lidar use in the automotive industry has remained relatively stagnant in recent years, Aguilar says, in part because the technology’s lifespan is so short. Vibration from bumpy roads and severe environmental conditions are the biggest reliability killers for automotive lidar, says Mo Li, who studies photonic systems at the University of Washington. The optical alignment within the lidar package atop self-driving cars is delicate—tremors from a poor paving job could physically alter where the mirrors sit in the housing, potentially misaligning the beam and causing the system to fail. Or temperature fluctuations could cause parts to expand or contract with the same unfortunate outcome, h...