FMCW lidar for autonomous vehicles

Abstract

Aurora’s automotive frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) lidar technology has been designed and developed to address the needs of level 4/5 autonomous vehicles (AVs). Aurora’s FirstLight provides eye-safe and long-range performance, radial velocity on every point, and high spatial density. These features allow the Aurora Driver to unlock faster perception, tracking, and classification of vehicles and pedestrians. \n\nFiber-based optical technology developed for coherent telecom applications including EDFA’s had been employed for most coherent lidar applications. High power diode lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers offer an exciting route to reduce the complexity and improve robustness over fiber-based FMCW laser technology. A highly integrated semiconductor FMCW lidar system would greatly aid size, weight, and power considerations while removing dependence on optical fibers which are typically a point of higher manufacturing costs and performance susceptibility