Press Release

Quanergy Opens Automated Factory to Mass Produce Solid State LiDAR Sensors

Date Announced: 20 Dec 2017

Solid state LiDAR leader becomes the first in industry to manufacture in volume cost-effective LiDARs, expanding its lead in innovation and commercialization.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quanergy, the leading provider of solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions, today announced the opening of a new production factory located in Sunnyvale, California. The cutting-edge facility produces Quanergy’s patented S3 solid state LiDAR sensor. With the commissioning of this facility, Quanergy is now the only company to mass produce solid state 3D LiDAR sensors.

Officially opened at a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 6, 2017, the new facility boasts the latest manufacturing technology and features a high-capacity, fully-automated production line in a clean room environment. The line features state-of-the-art semiconductor handling and packaging equipment, including high-precision photonic IC processing tools and a conveyor system connecting the machinery that turns a silicon wafer cassette into finished LiDAR sensors. The facility also includes calibration and final testing, enabling Quanergy to oversee the entire production process and provide high quality and reliability in an industry that has thus far relied mainly on manual labor to build mechanical LiDARs. The manufacturing facility also has the capability to expand to increase capacity based on market demands.

“This manufacturing facility represents our most significant milestone to date in realizing Quanergy’s goal to bring capable, reliable, and affordable electronically-steered solid state LiDAR sensors to mass market,” said Dr. Louay Eldada, founder and CEO of Quanergy. “We fully expect that these sensors will play an integral role in bringing self-driving vehicles to the road, as the unparalleled solid state reliability and silicon CMOS cost make them only viable sensors for the production of Level 4 and Level 5 (highly and fully automated) passenger vehicles, and will also contribute to groundbreaking applications in industrial automation and security.”

As a result of over 25 years of development by a core team of photonic IC experts with doctorate degrees in optical engineering and an extensive track record of commercializing integrated optical products across four companies, Quanergy has commercialized an optical phased array (OPA) LiDAR based on an ultralow-cost mature silicon CMOS platform. The work builds upon an electronic beam steering DARPA-sponsored program, on which the core team worked in the early 1990s.

The patented S3 is the world’s only affordable solid state LiDAR sensor, designed to provide the highest level of performance, reliability, durability and dependability required in safety-critical applications such as autonomous vehicles. Its compact configuration allows the sensor to be concealed within the body of a vehicle or machine without compromising its design aesthetics or aerodynamics. The mass production of the S3 enables smart automation based on HD 3D sensing, classification and tracking. The sales price of the S3 currently varies between several hundred and a few hundred dollars, depending on the quantity ordered. With higher levels of integration in future sensor generations on the product roadmap, Quanergy estimates the price will drop below $100 per sensor.

Quanergy has received multiple awards for its LiDAR sensor technology, and the S3 won the 2017 CES Best of Innovation Award. Quanergy continues to be the only LiDAR company to claim that distinction.

Source: Quanergy

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