SiLC Technologies Inc. today announced the availability of its Eyeonic Vision System, which it claimed is “the industry’s most compact and powerful coherent vision system on the market.”
The Monrovia, Calif.-based company added that the new sensor has the “highest resolution, highest precision, and longest range” while remaining the only FMCW (frequency-modulated, continuous-wave) lidar to offer polarization data.
“Our goal is to change the status quo for machine vision,” stated Mehdi Asghari, founder and CEO of SiLC. “When bringing vision to machines, the criticality of ranging precision, direct monitoring of motion through instantaneous velocity, spatial resolution for recognition of fine features, and polarization for material detection cannot be understated.”
“For machines to augment our lives, they must have a vision solution that is powerful, compact, scalable, and unaffected by environmental conditions including interference from other systems,” he said. “Our groundbreaking technology will empower the next generation of machine vision applications with bionic vision that will exceed that of humans and yet be compact, cost-effective, and power-efficient.”
Eyeonic Vision System sets new benchmarks
SiLC Technologies said in a release that the Eyeonic Vision System integrates its photonics technology into “the industry’s first available turnkey vision solution.” The system is designed to be flexible and reduce time to market for manufacturers seeking to incorporate machine vision into their products.
The company claimed that Eyeonic delivers “the highest levels of vision perception to identify and avoid objects with very low latency, even at distances of greater than 1 km.” It said the system is suitable for robotics, autonomous vehicles, and smart cameras.
SiLC said its fully integrated silicon photonics chip offers about 10 milli-degrees of angular resolution coupled with millimeter-level precision. It provides more than 10x the definition and precision of legacy lidar sensors, enabling the Eyeonic Vision Sensor to measure the shape and distance of objects with high precision at great distances, said the company.
The new offering couples the Eyeonic Vision Sensor and a digital processing system based on a FPGA (field-programmable gate array), according to SiLC. “The compact, flexible architecture of the new system enables synchronization of multiple vision sensors for unlimited points/second,” it said.
The Eyeonic Vision System supports multiple scanner options and provides customers the flexibility to tailor their designs to maximize performance for distance and field of vision for their applications, said SiLC. The company also offers a wide range of accessories.
Vision system now available and to be shown at CES
The Eyeonic Vision System is now available and shipping worldwide. Pricing varies depending on configuration, and more information is available at [email protected].
Next month at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, SiLC will give live Eyeonic Vision System demonstrations. The CES award committee has already named the Eyeonic Vision System an honoree for the prestigious CES Innovation Award.
“At CES, we’re showing the industry’s most powerful system, and it is shipping to strategic customers,” added Asghari. “SiLC is poised to accelerate time to market for leaders in the machine vision arena looking to bring unparalleled vision to their applications in the future.”
About SiLC Technologies
Silicon photonics industry veterans with decades of experience in commercial product development and manufacturing founded SiLC Technologies in 2018. The company said it is applying that expertise to advance market deployment of FMCW lidar systems.
SiLC said its 4D+ Eyeonic Chip “integrates all photonics functions needed to enable a coherent vision sensor, offering a tiny footprint while addressing the need for low cost and low power.” Frost & Sullivan has recognized the chip as a potential disruptor of the global lidar market, and Gartner named SiLC a “Cool Vendor in Silicon Photonics.”
Investors in SiLC include Dell Technology Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, FLUXUNIT – ams OSRAM Ventures, UMC Capital, Alter Ventures, and Epson.
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