Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) has acquired a solid-state laser beam steering technology from Vescent Photonics Inc. of Golden, Colo.

Vescent’s non-mechanical beam steering technology enables more robust integrated light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems that overcome many of the drawbacks associated with today’s mechanical offerings such as reliability, size, and cost. ADI says that it views this acquisition as strengthening its position as a major automotive safety system technology partner for next-generation advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving applications.

Laser arrays build a 3D model of every object in a car's vicinity.LiDAR and RADAR are two technologies expected to play a key role as the "eyes" for ADAS and autonomous vehicles. Among the major industry players in the nascent LiDAR industry is Velodyne, which supplied the LiDAR sensors used by many of the successful entrants in DARPA's "Grand Challenges," which helped to bring the concept of autonomous vehicles into public awareness in 2005 and 2007. Ford is currently using Velodynes's LiDAR sensors on the roofs of its autonomous test vehicles.

Velodyne's sensors spin at moderately-high RPMs and produce a "point cloud" that gives the car's navigation computer a 360-degree field of view of the surrounding terrain, road, lanes, vehicles, pedestrians, and so on, along with distance information to each of the points in the cloud.

Competitors to Velodyne say that moving parts can create a potential vulnerability to mechanical breakdown. And sensors of this type can be pricey. According to a January 2015 article in IEEE Spectrum, the Velodyne LiDARs used in Google's first self-driving car prototypes cost around $70,000 each. That's in large part due to the number of lasers used; Velodyne's top-of-the line LiDAR sensor uses 64 lasers. The company has been working on cost-reducing the technology, and now offers less expensive 32- and 16-laser sensors in addition to the 64-laser model.

Some automakers — being highly style-conscious — don't want ungainly-looking spinning devices on the roofs of their cars. So, for reasons of cost, reliability, and style, the idea of inexpensive LiDAR sensors that don't use mechanical scanning holds great appeal. These no-moving-parts scanners may not be able to give 360-degree coverage, but if they're inexpensive enough, four or six of them might add up to 360-degree coverage, and possibly still cost less than one or two of the spinning LiDAR scanners.

The no-moving-parts types also have the potential to be better integrated into the auto body, so as to be much less obtrusive than one or two spinning sensors mounted atop the vehicle's roof.

Several companies either are offering or are developing LiDAR sensors that have no moving parts. With this recent technology acquisition, Analog Devices may soon be another competitor in the LiDAR space.