Lasers & Sources

Princeton Lightwave creates automotive lidar unit

July 18, 2016

The Automotive LiDAR Business Unit will commercialize Princeton Lightwave's Geiger-mode lidar technology for the emerging driverless car market.

Conard Holton

Princeton Lightwave (Cranbury, NJ) has formed the Automotive LiDAR Business Unit to commercialize its Geiger-mode lidar technology for the emerging driverless car market. Geiger-mode lidar has been recommended by the Auto Alliance--which represents vehicle manufacturers that produce 77% of all cars and light trucks in the United States--for its ability to sense beyond 200 meters for reducing collisions.

Sabbir Rangwala, who has been leading the company’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems activities for several years, is the unit’s president. He stated, “Long-range lidar is a critical part of the sensor suite for enabling safety at different levels of automation." He added that Princeton Lightwave is the only company with Geiger-mode lidar sensors operating beyond 1400 nm and is uniquely positioned to leverage this technology into the automotive market.

Related article:LIDAR nears ubiquity as miniature systems proliferate, by Laser Focus World Senior Editor Gail Overton

Related article: After the Tesla accident, an argument for LIDAR, by Strategies Unlimited analyst Allen Nogee

Princeton Lightwave has commercialized Geiger-mode detectors over the past decade for 3D imaging applications in defense and mapping. CEO Mark Itzler said, “The high sensitivity of Geiger-mode detectors, which are capable of detecting even a single photon, provides unparalleled performance for high-resolution, long-range 3D lidar imagery.”

Princeton Lightwave Chairman Yves Dzialowski added that the core device technologies are semiconductor-based, so they will scale in volume to meet automotive prices.

Source:Princeton Lightwave

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.