Startup Lumotive Inc., which makes chips that can change the direction of laser beams, has raised $14 million in funding.

Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and ITHCA Group provided the capital. The cash infusion, which was announced today, came as an extension to a $45 million Series B round that Lumotive closed in February.

Lumotive’s chips are designed to power lidar sensors, which use laser beams to create a three-dimensional map of their surroundings. Historically, such sensors included bulky mechanical components. According to Lumotive, its technology removes the need for moving parts and thereby lowers production costs while boosting hardware reliability.

A lidar sensor works by shining laser light on an object and measuring how long the photons take to bounce back. The more distant the object, the longer it takes the light beams to return. The distance data that the lidar sensor collects can be used to assemble a detailed, three-dimensional point cloud map of its environment.

Before a lidar sensor can collect data about an object, it must steer the laser light it generates in that object’s direction. Lumotive’s flagship chip, the LM10, can be used to perform that steering. It functions as a kind of mirror. When a lidar sensor shines laser beams on the LM10, the beams are reflected off the chip’s surface in the direction of the object that the sensor is measuring.

The chip is based on a technology that Lumotive calls Light Control Metasurface. It changes the direction of light beams using microscopic optical components made of a liquid crystal material. This is a type of material that shares certain properties with both liquids and crystals.

According to Lumotive, the angle at which the LM10 reflects light can be customized by running a current through the chip. In urban environments, a vehicle’s lidar sensor can configure the LM10 to collect data using a wide field of view. On a highway, the sensor could focus primarily on the space directly in front of a vehicle.

The LM10 doesn’t generate the laser beams it reflects, but rather relies on a separate light emitter inside the lidar sensor it powers. Lumotive says that the LM10 works with “all types of” laser emitters including EEL and VCSEL modules. Those are light-generating chips that are commonly used in lidar sensors. 

An EEL chip emits laser beams from its sides while VCSEL modules project light through its surface. The former technology delivers higher brightness, which makes it more suitable for long-range sensing. VCSEL trades off some range for increased power-efficiency.

Lumotive sells its LM10 chip alongside development kits designed to help customers more quickly design new lidar sensors. The kits include software, cables, a power supply and other components. Lumotive says that they shorten the sensor development process to a few months.

According to the company, its technology also has applications beyond the lidar market. A data center switch could use a Lumotive chip to manage the flow of light inside fiber-optic cables. The company also envisions engineers implementing its hardware in a variety of other devices ranging from handsets to satellites.

Lumotive will use the proceeds from its Series B extension to grow its presence in the industrial sector and onboard more international customers. 

Image: Lumotive