Stanley begins mass production of high-power infrared VCSELs for vehicles

     Tokyo-based Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. (Stanley) announced that the company has begun mass production and shipping of high-power infrared VCSELs that meet the automotive quality standard AEC-Q102, which will be delivered to customers for the world's first infrared VCSELs. automotive interior sensing equipment.

     Stanley said the product is the result of a partnership with infrared VCSEL maker Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE). In the context of the automotive industry's desire to improve functionality and safety through in-vehicle sensing, Lumentum has entered into a partnership with Stanley to combine Stanley's packaged products that meet automotive reliability requirements with Lumentum's innovative products (which With more than 1 billion shipments and a track record of zero market failures), both parties are able to offer an attractive solution to a broad range of customers requiring next-generation optical sensing technology.

     It is reported that infrared sensing technology has been used in various applications for many years, and its performance has improved rapidly in recent years. As part of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), the use of DMS (Driver Monitoring System) to prevent traffic accidents caused by drivers is increasing, and OMS (Occupant Monitoring System), which reduces the risk to passengers in the vehicle, is becoming more and more universal. And Stanley's infrared LEDs have been widely used in many of these application scenarios.

     In the future, the increasing sophistication of autonomous driving and ADAS will require higher performance sensing technology, and infrared LEDs cannot meet the needs of new fields, so VCSELs will shine. For example, Stanley's infrared VCSELs deliver a uniform, high-power infrared beam to all corners of the camera's field of view. This allows the system to read the tiniest changes in the driver's gaze or facial expression and detect people anywhere in the car without losing any time. In addition, VCSELs also have the potential to use pulsed light at higher speeds than LEDs, a property that can be used to sense three-dimensional information, such as measuring distance and shape using ToF cameras or lidar.