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The
German firm's head of its automotive business said on Tuesday
the acquisition of Innoluce will help it drive down the cost of
light detection and ranging sensors (lidar) for use in guidance
systems for mass-market vehicles.
"We intend to make lidar an affordable feature for every
new-built car worldwide," Peter Schiefer said in a statement.
Lidar employs laser beams to measure the distance to objects
near a vehicle, enabling car control systems to identify road
ways, traffic signs, pavement markings, and overhead bridges and
other potential obstacles.
But early versions of the sensor devices developed by Silicon
Valley-based firm Velodyne lidar that were used by Google in its
self-driving car project cost $75,000 per vehicle.
Newer versions of lidar sensors cost just one-tenth of that
price and Velodyne and rivals such as Quanergy are aiming to
drive the cost down to hundreds of dollars per unit by
miniaturizing the bulky roof-top devices.
Innoluce produces the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)
modules that incorporate tiny mirrors controlled by a computer
chip that can be used to direct laser beams in the sensor
systems.
Financial terms of the purchase of Innoluce, a spin-off from the
electronics group Philips <PHG.AS>, were not disclosed. The
company was founded in 2010 and is based in Nijmegen, on the
Dutch-German border.
Infineon's biggest rivals in the car market are also racing to
develop chips to control and drive the sensors required for
autonomous driving, including NXP <NXPI.O> and
STMicroelectronics <STM.PA>.
(Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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