Monolithically integrated silicon photonic biaxial FMCW LiDAR system
Abstract Three-dimensional sensing is critical for autonomous systems, robotics and industrial monitoring, motivating compact frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDARs, which optically measure distance and velocity. However, current integrated designs using optical phased arrays (OPAs) for beam steering or focal-plane arrays (FPAs) for parallel reception face trade-offs in optical power, aperture and acquisition speed. Here we show a biaxial FMCW LiDAR that monolithically integrates an OPA transmitter and coherent FPA receiver with over 4500 functional components on separate optical paths, eliminating the need for circulators. A line-shaped beam enables agile steering, while a lens-assisted FPA provides a large receiving aperture and parallel single-wavelength readout. The system images at 20 m using 3.7 mW of emitted power, with 5 cm depth resolution and 1.4 mm/s velocity resolution. It produces point clouds at 10 frames per second (fps) and supports acquisition rates up to 41 fps, offering a compact and practical route towards integrated FMCW LiDAR.
Authors
- Esteban Venialgo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4758-6446)
- Manuel Reza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2241-2642)
- Jac Romme (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8936-2993)
- Christian Bachmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4180-2758)
- Joost Brouckaert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0208-3060)
- Mennatallah Kandil
- Elbert Bechthum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-2622)
- Shahzad Muzaffar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9237-1148)
- Maliheh Ramezani
- Paul Mateman
- Noor Schilder
- Huaqing Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-5441)
- Javier Pérez Santacruz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4444-7157)
- Peter Girouard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2425-0739)
- Nicolas Chauvet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6504-1730)
- Peter O’Brien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9966-1962)
- Brecht Berteloot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2622-8332)
- Matthew L. Hall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3546-4329)
- Guillaume Croes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6168-9794)
- Jochem Govers
- Evgenii Tiurin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7459-9699)
- Rainer Hornung
- Peter Gerets
- Dongjae Shin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7240-0378)
- Pawel Bembnowicz
- Ziduo Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5387-2062)
- Erik Emmen
- Puvendren Subramaniam
- Sean Collins
- Ruud Oldenbeuving
- Roelof Jansen
- Mathias Prost
- Felipe Pacheco de Oliveira
- Marcus Dahlem
- Padraic E. Morrissey
- Tangla D. Kongnyuy
Institutions
- Imec the Netherlands (NL)
- IMEC (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-09-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77490-4
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission