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I have a genuine question to all the LIDAR experts here: all the optical phased array research I've seen, such as the MIT, UCB and DARPA "SWEEPER" work only has
by deepnotderp 9y ago
I have a genuine question to all the LIDAR experts here: all the optical phased array research I've seen, such as the MIT, UCB and DARPA "SWEEPER" work only has a range of something like 2 meters, and 10 meters after lots of work. All the research papers I've seen also mention that accurate and high power phase shifters are a challenge as well as getting the optical phased array to a high enough output power. On the other hand, Quanergy seems to claim that their standard optical phased array on silicon is getting them 200 meter range and really good specs. Do they have something that academia doesn't have? Also Strobe's advisor's thesis says that their LIDAR only has a range of ~2 meters, isn't that totally unworkable for SDC LIDAR?
- joshvm 9y agoThe Quanergy system looks like it's doing conventional pulsed time of flight (maybe FMCW, but I don't know). They're operating in a frequency band that lets them put out a lot of power without risking eye safety, which means long range. Pulsed LIDAR is basically limited only by signal to noise, so provided you get some photons back and you know they're 'yours', you can measure long distances.
- deepnotderp 9y agoThe DARPA SWEEPER was also pulsed lidar, and it only had a range of 2 meters. And the problem really isn't the regulations for power output at the wavelength, but rather that the optical phased array itself can't put out the necessary power, regulations notwithstanding.