High performance lightweight laser scanners would permit the widespread use of professional LiDAR tools in complex environments like industry, archaeology and traffic or the integration of ground based robotic systems in human work environment. Miniaturized, yet nevertheless highly sensitive and fast LiDAR systems also serve market demands for easier system integration on small drones for challenging small-scale flight missions, for instance to monitor construction works, traffic observation, instable topography, or to assist rescue work in emergency scenarios. These applications typically use pulsed lasers in time of flight (TOF) LiDARs. Trains, airplanes in airports, big cranes in harbors, for example, are increasingly autonomous. Their movement needs to be safe for both the objects to be moved (i.e. detection of obstacles on their paths), but also for the people surrounding the objects, such as harbor, airport or railway workers and passengers. To this aim, reliable real-time measurement of distances (range) between objects and between objects and persons under all circumstances (i.e. fog, rain, snow, day, night), as well as their relative velocity is mandatory. These applications typically use frequency modulated lasers in FMCW LiDARs.
Unfortunately there are very few laser light sources available that could provide sufficient performance to achieve the required distance range, distance resolution, and velocity accuracy. Moreover, the available sources, namely single mode or multimode laser diodes and fiber laser sources, are either very costly, not sufficiently robust, or not compact enough for the applications.
The Integrated Photonics Systems Roadmap (IPSR) has identified integrated photonics as a key enabling technology for LiDAR, allowing to achieve simultaneously high performance (in terms of range, distance, and velocity resolution), and low cost. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) - devices that integrate many optical functionalities on a single chip including light emission, routing, modulation and detection - have been recognized to play a crucial role in coming years to push LiDAR systems towards mass market applications.
The objective of OPHELLIA is to develop novel materials and integration technology for the realization of innovative PIC building blocks to develop PIC based laser sources for emerging TOF and FMCW LiDAR applications exhibiting low cost and low size thanks to the high chip integration and tolerant packaging technology while, at the same time, exhibiting the same or even higher performance than existing solutions.
