Compact and Eye-Safe Laser Source on a Silicon Chip for Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) Systems in Self-Driving Vehicles

光探测和测距(LIDAR)传感器将是未来全自动无人驾驶汽车的关键元素，这将为我们提供一种更安全、更方便的出行方式。激光雷达传感器发送和接收光信号，以快速检测车辆周围物体的距离和速度，使车辆能够对其环境做出反应。目前，光纤激光器被用作高性能和人眼安全的激光雷达传感器光源，但它们相对较大，尺寸无法进一步缩小。为了实现在所有未来车辆上实施激光雷达的设想目标，车载激光雷达系统必须更加紧凑，同时也必须是低成本和可批量生产的。在这个项目中，麦克马斯特大学的研究人员将与ITF Technologies合作，为激光雷达传感器开发新的高度紧凑的激光器和光子微系统。麦克马斯特大学团队将以他们在稀土掺杂薄膜激光材料和硅光子微系统方面的专业知识为基础，为ITF Technologies的LIDAR系统开发新的超紧凑、低成本组件。具体地说，麦克马斯特团队将在麦克马斯特大学制造新的掺铒Yb共掺氧化物玻璃激光器和光学放大器，发射对眼睛安全的波长，并具有比之前开发的更高的效率和输出功率，并探索硅光子光学调制器和系统，使ITF Technologies能够缩小其LIDAR传感器中的整体光学系统。在这个项目中进行的研究和开发将在加拿大一个不断增长的领域提供HQP培训。这一伙伴关系将带来加拿大开发的具有重大经济影响和全球重要性的新技术，这些技术在汽车行业中的应用。

Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensors will be critical elements in future fully-automated self-driving vehicles, which will provide a safer and more accessible way for us to travel. LIDAR sensors send and receive light signals to rapidly detect the distance and speed of objects around the vehicle, allowing for the vehicle to react to its environment. Currently, fiber-based lasers are used as high-performance and eye-safe light sources for LIDAR sensors, but they are relatively large and their size cannot be further reduced. In order to meet the envisioned goal of their implementation in all future vehicles, automotive LIDAR systems must be more compact, while also being low-cost and mass producible. In this project, researchers at McMaster University in partnership with ITF Technologies will develop new highly compact lasers and photonic microsystems for LIDAR sensors. The McMaster University team will build on their expertise in rare-earth-doped thin film laser materials and silicon photonic microsystems to develop new ultra-compact, low-cost components for ITF Technologies' LIDAR systems. Specifically, the McMaster team will build new erbium-ytterbium-co-doped oxide glass lasers and optical amplifiers that will be fabricated at McMaster University, emit at eye-safe wavelengths, and have higher efficiencies and output powers than those developed previously, and explore silicon photonic optical modulators and systems that will allow ITF Technologies to shrink the overall optical system in their LIDAR sensors. The research and development to be carried out in this project will provide HQP training in Canada in a growing field. This partnership will lead to new technologies developed in Canada with significant economic impact and global importance based on their application in the automotive industry.