Latest Developments in Lidar Technology

Since last fall, NASA scientists have flown an advanced 3D Doppler wind lidar instrument across the United States to collect nearly 100 hours of data — including a flight through a hurricane. The goal? To demonstrate the unique capability of the Aerosol Wind Profiler (AWP) instrument to gather extremely precise measurements of wind direction, wind speed, and aerosol concentration – all crucial elements for accurate weather forecasting. Weather phenomena like severe thunderstorms and hurricanes develop rapidly, so improving predictions requires more accurate wind observations. However, in areas without clouds or where water vapor patterns cannot be easily tracked, there are typically no reliable wind measurements. The AWP instrument seeks to fill these gaps with detailed 3D wind profiles. Mounted to an aircraft with viewing ports underneath it, AWP emits 200 laser energy pulses per second that scatter and reflect off aerosol particles — such as pollution, dust, smoke, sea salt, and clouds — in the air. Aerosol and cloud particle movement causes the laser pulse wavelength to change, a concept known as the Doppler effect. The AWP instrument sends these pulses in two directions, oriented 90 degrees apart from each other. Combined, they create a 3D profile of wind vectors, representing both wind speed and direction. “The Aerosol Wind Profiler is able to measure wind speed and direction, but not just at one given point,” Bedka said. “Instead, we are measuring winds at different altitudes in the atmosphere simultaneously with extremely high detail and accuracy.” Vectors help researchers and meteorologists understand the weather, so AWP’s measurements could significantly advance weather modeling and forecasting. For this reason, the instrument was chosen to be part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Venture Program, which seeks data from new technologies that can fill gaps in current weather forecasting systems. NASA’s Weather Program also saw mutual benefit in NOAA’s investments and provided additional support to increase the return on investment for both agencies. On board NASA’s Gulfstream III (G-III) aircraft, AWP was paired with the agency’s High-Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) that measures water vapor, aerosols, and cloud properties through a combined differential absorption and high spectral resolution lidar. Working together for the first time, AWP measured winds, HALO collected water vapor and aerosol data, and NOAA dropsondes (small instruments dropped from a tube in the bottom of the aircraft) gathered temperature, water vapor, and wind data. “With our instrument package on board small, affordable-to-operate aircraft, we have a very powerful capability,” said Bedka. “The combination of AWP and HALO is NASA’s next-generation airborne weather remote sensing package, which we hope to also fly aboard satellites to benefit everyone across the globe.” #AWP #HALO #NASA #NOAA

What happens when you combine the precision of Seyond lidar, the real-time power of edge computing, and the intelligence of AI? You get highways that don’t just move traffic—but understand it. We’re talking next-gen ground truth highway insights powered by object-level detection. Using lidar, we can collect granular data like: 🔍 Object Speed 🚛 Object Class 📏 Height, Width, Length 🧭 Heading + GPS Coordinates ☄️ Real-time Trajectory Tracking And when you layer that with on-device AI and edge analytics, we can extract metrics that matter: 📊 85th% Speed – The gold standard for understanding driver behavior ⏱ Time Mean Speed – A snapshot of average flow conditions 🔲 Occupancy (Time + Space) – Where congestion lives, second by second 🛣 Lane-by-Lane & All-Lane Volume – Precision traffic counts for smarter signal timing 📉 Queue Length Monitoring – Know where and when things stack up No more piecing fragmented data together. No more lagging sensors. No more black boxes. This is real-time, actionable, infrastructure-ready insight—no induction loops, no cameras, no milti-sensor clutter. Just 24/7 365 lidar-powered awareness, embedded at the edge and ready to scale. 🧾 For audit teams at tolling agencies, this means reduced revenue leakage through more accurate object classification, object measurement down to 10 centimeters accuracy and movement tracking. 🛠 For operations teams, it’s a game-changer: better data for faster decisions, more efficient traffic flow, and improved safety at scale. 🏛 And for DOTs and TMC operators, this technology becomes the connective tissue—offering a unified view of what's happening on the roadway right now, and providing the fidelity needed to power the next generation of transportation strategies. The future of highway and tolling ops isn't just smart—it's self-aware.

Headline: Glass-Based Breakthrough Solves Key Laser Design Flaw After a Decade Introduction: Photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) hold immense promise for next-generation technologies like LiDAR, optical communication, and advanced sensing. Yet for over a decade, their development has stalled due to a fragile core design flaw. Now, engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have solved the problem with an elegant substitution: replacing air holes with embedded glass (silicon dioxide), enabling the first successful room-temperature, eye-safe PCSEL. Key Innovations and Findings: 1. The PCSEL Potential • PCSELs can produce bright, highly directional laser beams with exceptional precision. • Ideal for high-tech applications including: • LiDAR systems in autonomous vehicles • Optical communication infrastructure • Defense and environmental sensing systems • Their compact, scalable design makes them attractive for integrated photonic devices. 2. The Design Challenge: Air Holes Collapse • Traditional PCSELs require precise air holes in the photonic crystal layer to guide light efficiently. • During semiconductor fabrication, surrounding atoms shift and close these air holes before the device is completed. • This instability has prevented successful PCSEL operation under practical conditions for over ten years. 3. Glass Fix: Embedded Silicon Dioxide • UIUC engineers replaced the air holes with buried silicon dioxide (glass) features in the photonic crystal. • These dielectric features remained structurally stable during the growth of surrounding materials. • The new approach allowed the team to demonstrate the first photopumped, room-temperature PCSEL with eye-safe wavelengths using this method. • This innovation not only preserves the optical control previously achieved with air holes but makes the device fabrication process far more reliable. 4. Impact and Next Steps • The new technique could lead to scalable, manufacturable PCSELs for commercial use. • It opens the door for practical, compact laser sources that integrate easily into chips and optical systems. • Future developments may target electrical pumping (not just optical), further enhancing real-world usability. • The approach could influence other areas of photonic engineering where structural stability is a limiting factor. Conclusion and Broader Significance: By replacing fragile air holes with robust glass structures, researchers have resolved a critical bottleneck that has hindered laser innovation for over a decade. This advancement not only brings PCSELs closer to real-world deployment but also exemplifies how a simple material change can unlock major technological leaps. It could soon redefine what’s possible in autonomous sensing, secure communication, and photonics-based defense systems. https://lnkd.in/gEmHdXZy

Out of Redmond, Washington, Lumotive isn't just tinkering with optics. They're engineering the future of beam control with chips that steer light like it owes them money. Born in 2017 from the brainpower of Intellectual Ventures and Duke University's Center for Metamaterials, the company's been in stealth mode on steroids, until now. They've just secured another $14 million in a Series B extension, stacking their total Series B to $59 million and pushing overall venture funding north of $100 million. And this isn't casual money. Amazon's Industrial Innovation Fund and ITHCA Group, Oman's tech investment powerhouse, led the latest round. Add in Stifel Bank with the debt support, and now you've got a capital mix that's half Wall Street, half next-gen #sovereign energy. That kind of check-writing doesn't show up unless the product moves markets. Let's talk product. Lumotive's Light Control Metasurface (LCM) chips are fully solid-state, no moving parts, no cute mechanical tricks, just software-defined optics moving at 100 times the speed of your standard LiDAR. It's like trading in a rotary phone for quantum entanglement. The LM10 chip is already in volume production at SkyWater Technology's foundry, and deployments are picking up across ADAS, data centers, warehouse automation, and defense. Behind the curtain, Dr. Gleb Akselrod isn't just the Founder and CTO, he's a metasurface whisperer with a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and enough patents to make a lawyer blush. Dr. Sam Heidari stepped in as CEO in 2021 with the precision of a sniper, ex-CEO of Quantenna, PhD from University of Southern California, and a resume built for scaling hardware companies like a Silicon Valley assassin. The leadership stack is tight, the roadmap is nasty (in the best way), and the chip pipeline is pointed straight at a $5.8B LiDAR market and a $3B optical switching war zone. What makes this moment matter? It's not just that Lumotive's LCM tech delivers a 160° field of view, multi-wavelength beam steering, and dynamic splitting. It's that it's all made using CMOS, meaning this isn't niche science, it's scale-ready. As AI infrastructure, autonomous systems, and #smartdefense scramble for better vision and faster bandwidth, Lumotive isn't offering options. They're offering inevitability. #Startups #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #SeriesB #AI #Semiconductor #Optics #Infrastructure #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #Hiring #TechHiring If engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen.