ROHM has announced it has developed a high output laser diode - RLD8BQAB3 - for use in ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) equipped with LiDAR for distance measurement and spatial recognition.

ROHM says it will initially start supplying samples targeting consumer and industrial applications such as drones, robot vacuum cleaners, AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), and service robots.

LiDAR is seeing growing adoption in recent years across a variety of applications that require automation such as automotive ADAS, AGVs, drones, and robot vacuums, facilitating precise distance measurement and spatial recognition. To detect information at greater distances with more accuracy, there is a need for laser diodes that serve as light sources to achieve high kW-level output while allowing multiple light sources to emit light at close intervals.

ROHM says it has established proprietary patented technology that achieves the narrow emission width of lasers, enhancing the long-distance, high accuracy LiDAR, beginning with the commercialisation of the 25W output RLD90QZW5 in 2019 and high-power 120W RLD90QZW8 in 2023. Building on these successes, it has developed a new 125W 8ch (1kW class) array-type product that meets the demand for a high output, high performance laser diode.

The RLD8BQAB3 is an ultra-compact surface mount high-output 125W × 8ch infrared laser diode for LiDAR applications that utilise 3D ToF systems to carry out distance measurement and spatial recognition. The optimised design features 8 emission areas (each 300µm wide) per element, installed on a submount affixed to a high heat dissipation substrate.

The package’s emitting surface incorporates a clear glass cap – reported to be an industry first for a surface mount laser diode - eliminating the risk of light scattering caused by scratches during dicing that tends to occur with resin-encapsulated products, ensuring high beam quality. Each emission area is wired with a common cathode, enabling the selection of the irradiation method based on application needs - ranging from individual emission that increases the number of light-emitting points to industry-leading* simultaneous emission at ultra-high outputs of 1kW class.

The new product retains the key features of ROHM’s conventional laser diodes, including uniform emission intensity across the emission width along with a low wavelength temperature dependence of 0.1nm/°C (vs 0.26 to 0.28nm/°C for standard products). On top, the array configuration narrows the regions of reduced emission intensity between channels, while the bandpass filter minimises the effects of ambient light noise from the sun and other sources, contributing to long-distance detection and high-definition LiDAR.

*ROHM January 7, 2025 study

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