Lumotive launches 'revolutionary' optical beamforming chip
Lumotive has teamed up with SkyWater Technology to start production of LM10 – the first programmable optical metasurface that has been commercialised into a mass-producible chip.
Optical beamforming allows beams of light to be shaped, split and steered electronically with digital precision and repeatability. It is deployed in laser communications and lidar for imaging and remote sensing in industry verticals such as robotics and autonomous vehicles.
According to Lumotive, the LM10 represents a breakthrough for the tech. It is a light control metasurface (LCM)-based chip that allows for dynamic scanning and software-definable capabilities for solid-state lidar. As such, it supports precision and adaptable interaction in the physical world in real time.
Dr Gleb Akselrod, Lumotive's Founder and CTO, said: “Achieving our full LM10 LCM chip qualification in SkyWater’s production process marks a watershed moment in the field of optical metamaterials. The ability to produce compact, adaptive programmable optics using well-established and scalable silicon fabrication techniques will forever change a wide range of industries, from 3D sensing to optical communications to AR/VR displays. We are proud to have made this a reality together with SkyWater.”
