Cepton launches 200 m range, low-cost lidar

July 14, 2017

Cepton's technology features a unique micro-motion technique that eliminates the need for large spinning parts.

A point cloud is shown for Cepton lidar, which has a scanning range of beyond 200 m and better than 0.2 degree angular resolution.

Cepton Technologies (San Jose, CA), a provider of 3D sensing solutions for automotive and industrial applications, has launched its HR80T long-range and HR80W wide-angle light detection and ranging (lidar ) products, bringing perception and 3D mapping to smart machines with higher resolution and longer-range imaging at lower costs.

Cepton's technology features a unique micro-motion technique that eliminates the need for large spinning parts. Cepton lidar is not flash lidar--it has a laser scanning array with frictionless micro motion and does not use MEMS mirrors or any non-standard, exotic components.

Equivalent to an 80 line scanner, Cepton's design uses a smaller number of laser diodes and detectors allowing for significantly smaller devices to be produced with high reliability. The HR80T long-range device has a detection range of beyond 200 m and better than 0.2 degree angular resolution in both horizontal and vertical directions.

"Companies in the automotive and industrial sectors are struggling to bring 3D perception to smart machines due to the lack of currently available high-resolution, high-performance and low-cost LiDAR solutions," said Mark McCord, co-founder and VP of engineering, Cepton. "As a result, machines currently live in the dark, with limited view of the world around them. Cepton is pushing the limits of LiDAR technology. These new products provide our customers with an immediate and practical means to enable perception in smart machines and are currently the most viable solution for mass deployment on autonomous vehicles."

Having filed five core patents on its lidar designs, Cepton says its design, suitable for automated manufacturing and use of off-the-shelf components, enables scaling of manufacturing with zero vendor risk, with a price point of less than $500 per unit in high volume.

SOURCES: Cepton via Business Wire; http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170509005420/en/Cepton-Launches-High-Performance-LiDAR-Solutions and direct company information.

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.