Lidwave has raised $10 million to improve machine vision when it comes to spotting pedestrians in a busy landscape or helping a robot in a factory see better.

The technology is called 4D-LiDAR, and Lidwave works by taking complex LiDAR sensors and putting them on a chip, said Yehuda Vidal, CEO of Lidwave, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Jumpspeed Ventures and Next Gear Ventures led the round, with strategic investment from a major Swedish truck manufacturer.

This investment highlights the importance of Lidwave’s technology and approach to advancing the future of machine vision. Lidwave will use the new funding to further develop its optical chip, launch the industry’s first software-definable 4D LiDAR sensor, and expand its market presence.

“This investment marks an important milestone for Lidwave, bringing us closer to our goal of revolutionizing machine vision,” said Vidal. “Our 4D LiDAR chip not only sets a new standard in sensor performance, but also makes advanced perception technology accessible to the mass market. We are excited to have the support of visionary investors who share our mission to improve safety and productivity across diverse industries.

The challenge

Sensors with machine vision are essential in many industries. And there is consensus that LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors are essential for autonomous machines in various fields.

LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that uses a laser to measure distances and create 3D models of the space near the sensor. A LiDAR system emits a laser pulse that reflects off objects and is detected by a receiver. The time it takes for the light to return is used to calculate the distance to the object. It can thus be used to map the space in front of a car equipped with LiDAR.

However, its full potential remains untapped due to high cost, complexity and reliability issues. Existing LiDAR systems are complex and include dozens of elements, including laser arrays, detectors and optical components, assembled in a complex and expensive process.

This results in high-end LiDAR units costing thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars, limiting their widespread adoption in industries ranging from automotive, transportation, traffic management, industrial automation, from ports to railways.

Lidwave’s response

Lidwave addresses these challenges with its new technology, marking a new era: LiDAR 2.0, an affordable LiDAR system-on-a-chip designed for the mass market.

Lidwave’s proprietary Finite Coherent Ranging (FCR) technology integrates all critical components on a single chip, simplifying production and significantly reducing costs. FCR allows Lidwave to integrate key components on a single chip by treating light as a wave, rather than using traditional photon counting. This approach enables precise measurement of range and speed while providing high-resolution data that helps systems understand their environment with greater clarity and provide immunity to external interference.

By combining lasers, amplifiers, receivers and optical routing on a single chip, Lidwave not only reduces production costs, but also makes this powerful technology more accessible and reliable for a wide range of industries.

Additionally, unlike conventional LiDARs, Lidwave’s coherent sensing method provides pixel-level Doppler (velocity) data as well as depth information, allowing machines to perceive and understand their surroundings with unparalleled clarity, driving to better informed decisions.

Origins

Vidal co-founded Lidwave in 2021 with Yossi Kabessa (CTO) and Uri Weiss (chief scientist) in Jerusalem. The company has fewer than 20 people.

“Our core business lies in coherent optics. This is a regime of optics that uses quantum phenomena with light for imaging purposes. We saw that LiDAR is a very complex machine that costs tens of thousands of dollars for a high-end system,” Vidal said.

The variety of LiDAR sensors is wide, from small sensors in smartphones for facial recognition to long-range models capable of detecting more than 100 meters for cars. Since it is laser-based, it has optical components that are not so easily converted to silicon chips. Lidwave is a fabless chip company, meaning it designs chips and has them manufactured by contract chipmakers.

“We have over 10 years of expertise in the specific area of ​​coherent optics, which allows us to do this on a chip,” Vidal said.

4D refers to time, or the fourth dimension, which means capturing spatial data over time for something like a moving car. The sensor can therefore use Doppler technology to capture information such as speed. With this additional data, the sensor can clean up an image. It is in higher resolution and you can determine by the blue data if an object is coming towards you. If it’s red, it’s moving away from you, according to a demo Vidal showed me. Lidwave’s very name means that it can focus on coherent light and measure the light wave, as opposed to particles. This helps extract speed and depth.

“This is the fourth dimension that we offer,” he said. “We still use light, but we use it differently. »

Applications range from self-driving cars to industrial automation or smart cities, as it is very useful in determining the state of a moving object in many different scenarios.

Investor interest

“We recognized the potential of LiDAR technology many years ago, but only now, with Lidwave, is there a clear path to scalability and broad adoption,” said Ben Wiener, founding partner of Jumpspeed Ventures, in a press release. “Lidwave’s revolutionary 4D chip overcomes the obstacles of existing LiDARs, reducing the complexity and costs associated with their deployment. We pride ourselves on investing in cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to fundamentally transform industries, and with that in mind, we look forward to the impact Lidwave will have.

Lidwave’s seed round also saw participation from additional investors including Sapir Venture Partners, Teramips Technologies, Beyond-Electronics, Howard Morgan (MFCIF) and Israel Innovation Authority (non-dilutive).

The company collaborates with leading manufacturers, tier-one suppliers and major players in industrial automation and smart infrastructure to bring a new era of autonomy to the mass market. Lidwave is seeking new partnerships to increase production and expand its technology to new areas, saving lives, improving safety and increasing automation around the world.

“We will have a fully functional system on chip. We are bringing a new solution to the mass market,” Vidal said. “This is the holy grail, and only in the last five years has there been a huge investment in the semiconductor industry, which allows us to integrate active optical components such that lasers and detectors in a silicon wafer, and it’s a real game changer.”

There are enough foundries, or contract manufacturers, capable of making these types of chips based on Lidwave’s designs, he said. Ten years ago, this probably wasn’t the case.

Automakers are one of the targets for this technology, but validation may take a few years. It is therefore more likely that industrial automation and autonomous robots will be an earlier market.