Lumotive, the Bill Gates-funded startup developing LiDAR systems
for autonomous vehicles, and Himax Display, Inc., a subsidiary of
Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIMX), today announced a
first-of-its-kind, jointly-developed solution to enable disruptive
beam steering technology in LiDAR systems that marries Himax’s
proven Liquid-Crystal-On-Silicon (LCOS) technology with Lumotive’s
patented Liquid Crystal Metasurfaces™ (LCMs) to significantly
improve the performance, reliability and cost of LiDAR systems. In
the automotive industry, Lumotive’s LiDAR solution will enable both
advanced driver-assistance systems (or ADAS) and fully autonomous
vehicles such as “robo-taxis” and self-driving trucks.
LiDAR, a key 3D-sensing technology for autonomous driving
systems, requires advanced beam steering to deliver high
performance and commercial viability. Traditionally, LiDAR relied
on bulky spinning assemblies, while newer breeds of LiDAR sensors
utilize MEMS mirrors or optical phased arrays. However, both of
these approaches lack performance due to the small optical aperture
of MEMS mirrors and the low efficiency of phased arrays. In a first
for LiDAR, Lumotive leverages Himax’s unique, tailor-made LCOS
process to convert semiconductor chips into dynamic displays that
steer laser pulses based on the light-bending principles of
metamaterials.
“Himax’s industry-leading LCOS technology and in-depth LC
know-how perfectly complement our LCM technology,” said Lumotive
co-founder and CEO, Dr. William Colleran. “Our combined approach is
an innovative technological advance that lowers cost, improves
performance and ultimately speeds time-to-market for reliable LiDAR
systems that make self-driving cars viable and safe.”
“We are very excited to be working with Lumotive to deliver a
true breakthrough in the development of LiDAR systems for the
autonomous vehicle market,” said Jordan Wu, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Himax Technologies. “While the approach is
unique, our industry-leading LCOS technology and tailor-made
service are market-proven and, when combined with Lumotive’s
patented LCM technology, represent a significant advance in an
increasingly important industry.”
LiDAR and the Lumotive AdvantageLiDAR systems
determine range by emitting laser light pulses and measuring the
round-trip flight time for those pulses to travel to and reflect
back from objects. A LiDAR system creates a 3D perceptual
map, or “point cloud” of its surroundings by scanning, or “beam
steering”, laser pulses across its two-dimensional field-of-view,
with the third dimension derived from the distance measured to an
object at a given horizontal and vertical position. LiDAR has
proven critical for autonomous vehicles because the technology can
accurately locate objects to within a few centimeters at ranges of
hundreds of meters. LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection
and Ranging, generally exhibits shorter range but superior
measurement resolution compared to its older cousin, radar, which
stands for Radio Detection and Ranging. Research firm Yole
Développement estimates that the ADAS and autonomous vehicle LiDAR
markets will grow dramatically in the coming years, increasing from
$721 million in 2018 to $6.3 billion in 2024, with a CAGR of nearly
45% during that period.
Lumotive’s LCM™ chips contain no moving parts and are fabricated
using mature semiconductor manufacturing processes and Himax’s
tailor-made LCOS technology to enable commercially viable LiDAR
systems with low cost, high reliability and small size. In addition
to cost and performance advantages, Lumotive LCMs can be integrated
into small form-factor systems, appealing for other applications in
industrial and consumer sectors. Lumotive’s LiDAR systems offer
dramatic performance advantages, including an unprecedented
combination of:
- Large optical aperture (25 x 25 mm) which delivers long
range
- 120-degree field-of-view with high angular resolution
- Fast, random-access beam steering
About Lumotive Founded in 2018 with funding
from Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, Lumotive is a leader in
solid-state LiDAR, developing high-performance systems for
autonomous vehicles. The Seattle-based company’s LiDAR
solutions leverage revolutionary beam steering technology based on
patented Liquid Crystal Metasurfaces™ to deliver an unprecedented
combination of high performance (as measured by range, resolution
and frame rate) and readiness for mass adoption (measured by cost,
reliability and size). Lumotive’s beam steering chips enable this
unique combination because they are optically large, enabling high
performance, and manufactured with mature semiconductor processes,
enabling low cost and high reliability. For more information,
go to www.lumotive.com or follow us on Twitter
@LumotiveLidar.
Lumotive 10885 NE 4th Street, Suite 250
Bellevue, WA 98004 info@lumotive.com About Himax
Technologies, Inc.
Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) is a
fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display
imaging processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader
in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops,
monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation,
virtual reality (VR) devices and many other consumer electronics
devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for
touch sensor displays, in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration
(TDDI) single-chip solutions, LED driver ICs, power management ICs,
scaler products for monitors and projectors, tailor-made video
processing IC solutions, silicon IPs and LCOS micro-displays for
augmented reality (AR) devices and heads-up displays (HUD) for
automotive. The Company also offers digital camera solutions,
including CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics for AR devices,
3D sensing and machine vision, which are used in a wide variety of
applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera,
automobile, security, medical devices, home appliance and Internet
of Things. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan,
Himax currently employs around 2,100 people from three Taiwan-based
offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China,
Korea, Japan, Israel, and the US. Himax has 2,931 patents granted
and 561 patents pending approval worldwide as of June 30th, 2019.
Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging
processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics
brands worldwide.
http://www.himax.com.tw
Forward Looking Statements
Factors that could cause actual events or
results to differ materially include, but not limited to, general
business and economic conditions and the state of the semiconductor
industry; market acceptance and competitiveness of the driver and
non-driver products developed by the Company; demand for end-use
applications products; reliance on a small group of principal
customers; the uncertainty of continued success in technological
innovations; our ability to develop and protect our intellectual
property; pricing pressures including declines in average selling
prices; changes in customer order patterns; changes in estimated
full-year effective tax rate; shortages in supply of key
components; changes in environmental laws and regulations; exchange
rate fluctuations; regulatory approvals for further investments in
our subsidiaries; our ability to collect accounts receivable and
manage inventory and other risks described from time to time in the
Company's SEC filings, including those risks identified in the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Form 20-F for the year ended
December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.
Lumotive Media Contact Lynda Kaye Kaye Public
Relations for Lumotive lynda@kayepr.com Tel: +250-266-5293
Himax Company Contacts: Jackie Chang,
CFOHimax Technologies, Inc.Tel: +886-2-2370-3999
Ext.22300OrUS Tel: +1-949-585-9838 Ext.252Fax:
+886-2-2314-0877Email:
jackie_chang@himax.com.twwww.himax.com.tw
Sky Wang, Investor RelationsHimax Technologies,
Inc.US Tel: +1-949-585-9838 Ext.223Fax: +1-312-445-3643Email:
sky_wang@himax.com.twwww.himax.com.tw
Investor Relations - US RepresentativeMaili
Bergman, Managing DirectorMZ North AmericaTel:
949-298-4320Email: HIMX@mzgroup.uswww.mzgroup.us
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