Excelitas Technologies Corp. is a global technology leader delivering innovative and customized photonic solutions. For decades, the company has been actively engaged in the development of pulsed lasers and fast detectors for Industrial LiDAR applications. LEDinside / TrendForce had the honor to have an interview with Dr. Jürgen Schilz, Vice President Detection / Managing Director of Excelitas, to share his extensive industry experience in photonics, and gain valuable insight into the LiDAR market and Excelitas’ current progress in LiDAR Laser technology.

In its commercial business, Excelitas operates three main business units (BUs) – Lighting, Optical Technology, and Detection. As such, the company is experienced in providing optical solutions to customers based on its expertise in these areas. The Detection BU focuses on two main detection technologies: thermal infrared sensors for motion detection and temperature measurement, and photoelectric solutions for advanced smoke detection, single-photon counting solutions for scientific and analytical applications, as well as on high-speed photodetectors and pulsed lasers for range finding and LiDAR applications.

Speaking to the LiDAR market, Jürgen Schilz noted that LiDAR applications are emerging more and more rapidly including industrial robotics, security, and rangefinding, not to mention the great opportunities in the automotive market in the future. Schilz revealed that LiDARs have already been applied in Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) and Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) for commercial and industrial uses. In addition, the company’s LiDAR Lasers have been engaged by leading edge industrial LiDAR players for many years.

When it comes to Automotive LiDAR, the development of automotive industry has not gone as expected. Jürgen Schilz indicated that due to the current focus on electric vehicle development at major car-manufacturers, coupled with the promotion of new-energy vehicle subventions in China and Europe (e.g. Germany and France), ADAS development has been delayed, pushing large-scale deployments out by several years.

In response to the ranger finding / LiDAR market demands, Excelitas has been providing 905 nm and 1,550 nm edge-emitting lasers for the LiDAR market. Compared to VCSELs, edge-emitting lasers have the advantage to deliver high power at a small spot-size and the ability to produce light pulses in the nanosecond-range. These are prerequisites for long range sensing – preferably up to 200~300-meter. Excelitas has just launched a new generation of 905 nm pulsed lasers in plastic-package for industrial and high-volume consumer applications.

Excelitas’ second-generation 905 nm pulsed laser

In addition, Excelitas has provided a 1x4 LiDAR Laser array in surface-mount-device package (SMD) for industrial range finding. The SMD approach provides a good contact with PCB and heat sink, and is thought to become the mainstream product trend for the LiDAR Laser market. Currently, Excelitas’ 905 nm LiDAR Lasers have been in used in commercial and industrial applications, while their Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) have been adopted in the professional rangefinding market and are employed in single-photon counting modules (SPCMs). Excelitas offers a comprehensive series of SPCMs suitable for a variety of cutting-edge analytical applications, including particle sizing (DLS), ultra-sensitive fluorescence, single-molecule detection, diffused correlation spectroscopy (DCS), and more. 

1x4 Laser in SMD Package

Single Photon Counting Module (SPCM)

Furthermore, Schilz especially addressed that 5-10µm Thermal MEMS Detectors and Modules have found their way into remote temperature sensing, presence detection, surveillance, and fire detection. Excelitas clearly sees the trend towards consumer applications.

Excelitas IR MEMS Sensors in various packages

Finally, Jürgen Schilz underlined that Excelitas will continue to improve LiDAR laser power and research state-of-the-art photonic solutions to satisfy various photonic markets and customer needs.

  Jürgen Schilz, Vice President Detection / Managing Director of Excelitas 

Author: Joanne / TrendForce

2021 Infrared Sensing Market Trend- 3D Sensing, LiDAR, SWIR LED
Release: 01 January 2021
Format: PDF
Language: Traditional Chinese / English
Page: 175