Established in 2015, Vertilite is a startup focused on developing and marketing fast, high-power vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) and modules. The company has successfully launched products for applications including 3D sensing, optical communications, industrial automation, biomedical uses, automotive technologies, consumer electronics, and lidar. The primary automotive markets they serve include:
- Driver and Occupant Monitoring Systems (DMS/OMS)
With Euro NCAP standards and European Commission (EC) regulations requiring driver monitoring systems (DMS) starting from 2022, and recommendations from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for semi-autonomous vehicles, VCSEL-supported DMS/OMS are becoming crucial. These systems act as advanced in-cabin, near-IR cameras, keeping track of driver and passenger positions, sizes, and actions. Essential for L3 AD systems, VCSEL-based illuminators provide greater uniformity and narrower FWHM compared to IREDs, resulting in a better signal- noise ratio in 2D and 3D systems.
- Lidar
Lidar greatly benefits from VCSEL technology. The higher frequency of laser diodes allows for high resolution, excellent concealment, robust anti-interference, superior low-altitude detection, compact size, and light weight. VCSELs surpass LEDs and edge-emitting lasers in performance and cost, making them optimal for lidar applications. In drones, VCSEL-equipped lidar supports altitude holding, terrain simulation, and landing; in vehicles, it aids in collision avoidance and autonomous driving. Robots using lidar can navigate autonomously, with additional applications extending to AGV collision avoidance, intelligent transportation, and automatic toll booths.
More broadly, Vertilite VCSEL technology enables success across a variety of markets such as 3D sensing, gesture recognition, and IR illumination. Through close collaboration with clients, bespoke VCSEL solutions are provided to foster growth, innovation, and achievement.
DVN comment
The numerous benefits provided by VCSEL technology can be summarised by their wavelength uniformity and spectral width, high-temperature operation, wavelength stability, manufacturability, scalability, and affordability.
