OVERVIEW
LiDAR acronym for light detection and ranging – i.e. a laser-based sensing technology. The system emits short pulses of near infrared light, hits objects and bounces back to the LiDAR system. The receiver detects the returning light pulse and measures time-of-flight (ToF) and distance and enables to reconstruct 3D mapping and imaging.
VCSEL is a laser source recognized as ideal candidate for LiDAR because of high quality of optical beam, small size, low cost and easy to integrate on semiconductor platform. Thus, VCSEL technology opens up different possibilities of applications such as 3D camera and sensing for facial recognition, augmented reality and automotive car. However, the reliability of the technique is strongly dependent on the near-infrared (NIR) light source that must be characterized precisely.
