MEMS on Omnitron Sensors can get rid of the rotating peaks of self-driving cars (and lower costs too)

Omnotron sensorsWho makes MEMS sensory chips has raised $ 13 million to create cheap sensors for self -driven cars. If it works, we could say goodbye to those large rotating domes of autonomous vehicles.

The investment will nourish the expansion of Omnitron engineering and operation teams, accelerating the mass production of the first product of the company, reliably, affordable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for a mirror for many markets. MEMS are used in everything from Nintendo Wii to tire pressure sensors.

Corriente Advisors led a circle with the participation of longtime investor L’Antity Ventures.

Rationalization of the production of MEMS sensors-which are limited by expensive, labor-intensive production methods from decades-the intellectual property of Omnitron is the most important for optical crossing (OXCS) in artificial intelligence centers, optical subsystems in long intelligence (AI (AI) (AI) ), optical subsystems in long intelligence (AI) Lidar of autonomous navigation range, transparent displays in extended reality headsets (XR) and glasses and precision laser spectrometry for methane detection.

Sensors can enter OXCS for AI data centers and optical subsystems for advanced driver support systems (ADas), drones, XR headphones, toxic gas detection systems and other connected electronics, which are an integral part of our daily lives.

Markets operated by sensors

Omnitron heads to the main markets with its MEMS sensor technology:

• Improving the bandwidth and energy efficiency in AI: Photonics Photonics Oxc’s Photonics Centers for Tensor Architectures increases the speed and reliability of the transmission into a low power device, improving AI’s work process in data centers. According to New Street Research, this market will approach $ 30B in 2027.
• Increasing the accessibility and reliability of Lidar in autonomous vehicles: Memt’s mirror mirror is aimed at the common Lidar subsystem market predicted to reach $ 6.3B by 2027, according to Yole Intelligence.
• Improving the quality of the display in resource -controlled XR headsets/glasses: MEMS MEMS MEMS satisfies the increasing demand for XR optics, the market that Idtechex expects will exceed $ 5b by 2034.

“MEMS sensors are the intelligent microlesive devices that allow us to touch the world through silicon,” Aguilar said. “However, old and ineffective production methods prevent the type of growth of MEMS, which is seized in semiconductors. This is about to change. Our IP Fabrication MEMS offers a new paradigm for mass production of affordable and precise scale sensors. With big investments from Corriente Capital and with additional funding from L’Atity Ventures, our company can now fulfill the promise of our technology. “

Origin

Founded in 2019 by the main group of innovators of the MEMS industry, Omnitron Sensors has invented New Mms Fabrication IP, which improves the performance and reliability of the device and this optimizes assembly to produce MEMS sensors for price -sensitive markets S

Aguilar was quite honest about how the company, which now has 12 people, began. He worked at companies such as Google and Tesla, working on Lidar Systems. He thought of Lidar as the “banner of my existence.”

It launches the company with CTO Trent Huang, an expert in quantum calculation and MEMS.

“I am a fool and have spent my career building or integrating sensors into robots so that they can see and operate in the real world. He works with these sensors, in particular Lidar, that I saw the promise of what Lidar can do for robots. But I also directly experienced the dissatisfaction with the use of Lidar in applications in the real world. Although billions of dollars have been spent to bring Lidar to the market, we don’t see it in every car. What moves this problem is not necessarily a sexy word, but it is reliability. “

He said the sensors often fail only after a few months of work on the road. It was the obstacle for large car manufacturers who do not want to serve a car in the name of replacing a sensor.

Aguilar said: “That’s why Lidar did not put him on the market. And with my experience in building these technologies and as a good engineer, I would visit these suppliers and go, hey, what the hell is going on? “

He saw a big game in the process of producing semiconductors and how to make them transmit. That is why he formed the team five years ago and went to work on a plan to replace one of the moving parts with small small mirrors made with MEMS Tech, where the mechanical characteristics are built into semiconductors so that they have small small moving parts. In this case, they are small mirrors of a chip that can move.

Now on its third round of capital, the company refuses its chips, which contain a 10 -millimeter mirror (this is the golden part in the middle of the chips). It articulates 60 degrees, moving left and right and has one millisecond time to settle. This is very quickly and meets the requirements of the Lidar system, Aguilar said.

“It really made our customers interested. And because of this interest, we were able to provide three letters of intention, two in the automotive industry, one in the energy sector and valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, “he said.

How it works

Lidar means detecting light and range. Lidar systems measure the distance by shooting an infrared laser with a point and tightly measuring the pulse that bounces back. It works well, whether it is on the day or the night.

Lidar sensor is a great solution to a self -driving car theory. He feels the world around the car, which then analyzes if there are any safety threats while the car is moving. He essentially reproduces the situational awareness that every human driver has.

But Lidar relies on a laser. He fired the laser light from the car. The light hits objects and bounces back and this helps to draw a picture of the environment in digital form. The system receives the signal back and then calculates where the object is and in which direction it is moving. The processor takes all these points in the Cloud of Points and then makes sense of all the data.

Each Lidar system has a laser. He also has a scanner, something that designs the laser in the world, and a receiver that returns the signal.

The rotating device in a lidar sensor scanns the environment, scattering laser light and measuring the millions of dots in the stage as the light bounces back. Environmental scanning. The mirror is similar to a large rotating disco ball. A photo detector is like a camera that captures light.

This is a moving component that rotates Lidara around so that it can get a 360-degree environmental view. The challenge of a moving car is that all this should happen quickly because the environment changes as the car moves.

A laser gallo, short for a galvanometer, is an optical device that moves a mirror in response to electrical signals, usually in the scanner of the laser Galvo. The movement of the mirror allows precise control of the direction and focus of the laser beam. MEMS chips can replace this device part of the price.

“This is the big break we carry on the market. And this is changing inside the Lidar unit, “Aguilar said. “It is very cheaper and more reliable. This makes silicon. “

Progress toward production

In order to bring the product to the market, the company had to design a new semiconductor process for the production of MEMS devices in order to be less, more expensive and faster. MEMS chip manufacturers were not ready for this type of progress, which is ten times more densely than others on the market.

“We had to go back to the first principles and design a whole new MEMS technology knot to bring this out to the market. And this is a huge jump in density. So we built a much more tightly chip that allows us to achieve this performance, “Aguilar said.

As an example, a feature called sides ratio for MEMS devices is usually about 20 to one, and for omnitron sensors, the sides ratio is 100 to one or trench in the chip, which is five times deeper than normal.

The company now receives its first chips back from low -volume production and tests parts of reliability. The company uses foundry or contracting manufacturers who make chips in the United States to make sensory chips.

But the transition from “laboratory to FAB” or from testing to production is the place where “many of these technologies and companies die,” Aguilar said.

The company is now moving from the construction of chips of several silicon waffles a week to thousands a month, so it can prove reliability for automotive customers, Aguilar said. This means moving to larger MEMS factories with more capacity. This caused the funding circle.

For each vehicle it is likely that there will be four MEMS mirrors and two on a Lidar system. MEMS SESNOR is smaller, more expensive and does not require as much power. There are rivals outside, including MEMS chip manufacturers in China, but Aguilar believes it has a technological advantage.

In addition to cars, there are telecommunications devices for expanded reality and space communication devices that can use the technology.