Toshiba launches new solid-state Lidar to expand into traffic infrastructure monitoring

     Toshiba has announced a new solid-state lidar that provides the industry's smallest size, enhanced vibration and wind resistance while maintaining a maximum detection range of 200 meters, and the highest resolution compared to the industry's lidar of comparable size. Toshiba will use the upgraded capabilities of this lidar to advance the development of autonomous driving and expand its application to traffic infrastructure monitoring, such as road subsidence or landslide detection, snow and roadblock monitoring.

     At present, traffic infrastructure monitoring mainly relies on cameras. But in poor light and bad weather conditions, the performance of the camera will suffer. Toshiba's upgraded new solid-state Lidar enables clear, long-range, robust 3D scanning and target detection in a variety of lighting and weather conditions, and will be a strong alternative to cameras. The new solid-state Lidar is extremely compact, with a total volume of just 350 cubic centimeters, which is only one-third of the size of an earlier prototype Toshiba released in July 2020, and is the smallest solid-state lidar sensor in the industry.

     Akihide Sai, Senior Scientist at Toshiba Research and Development Center, said, "We look forward to deploying this technology in the field of road transportation infrastructure. We have all the underlying technologies needed for this rugged, simple to install, compact, high-resolution, long-range solid-state lidar. We expect there will be broad market demand for this general-purpose technology in both autonomous driving and transportation infrastructure monitoring."

     Toshiba made this compact lidar with higher resolution possible by upgrading its light-receiving chip, the silicon photomultiplier tube (SiPM). The new SiPM chip features a smaller transistor module and eliminates the buffer layer, protecting the transistor with a newly developed insulating groove between the transistor and the light receiving unit. The potential problem of low light sensitivity due to the use of smaller transistors is solved by increasing the voltage input of the optical receiving unit by adding a high withstand voltage part.

     These innovations have resulted in a 75 percent reduction in the size of the SiPM chip and a 50 percent increase in light sensitivity over the July 2020 prototype. Now, more SiPM can be arranged in the same package, increasing the resolution to 1200 x 80 pixels, a four-fold increase.

     Using innovative temperature compensation technology, the new Lidar automatically adjusts the voltage input of the light receiving unit to reduce the impact of external temperature changes, ensuring high performance of the SiPM and providing Lidar with the durability needed for stable operation in all weather conditions outdoors.

     In addition, Toshiba used its know-how in high-density component installation (know-how) to reduce the overall size of the Lidar transmitter and receiver to 350 cubic centimeters and ensure strong vibration and wind resistance. These advantages, combined with industry-leading high resolution, are expected to win a wider range of system applications.

     Toshiba will continue to support a safer transportation environment by promoting its LiDAR technology for autonomous driving and transportation infrastructure monitoring, and will continue research and development to further expand LiDAR's detection range, improve image resolution and miniaturization, and explore new applications in robotics, drones and small safety devices.