STMicroelectronics, one of the leading suppliers of semiconductors across all segments of electronics applications in the world, recently collaborated with an Israel based start up, AdaSky. AdaSky recently hit headlines for introducing Far Infrared (FIR) technology in automotive market for improving future of fully automatic vehicles. The collaboration of these two brands would result into inclusion of custom silicon into FIR technology based thermal cameras. This custom silicon is not only designed and also manufactured by ST under its proprietary 28nm FD-SO manufacturing technology. Viper, a fullproof sensing solution by AdaSky, intents to allow autonomous vehicles to watch and understand roads and their surroundings under the sun.
When a driver has complete sight and perception of the road they are driving on, surrounding infrastructure, obstacles, especially under challenging situations and weather conditions, driving gets much more easier than others. For achieving autonomous driving day in day out vehicles would need to depend on blend of complementary information streams offered by various sensors. None of camera or sensors in operation these days can capture all given information on their own, however, every single one of these have their own challenges under specific weather and lighting conditions. Passive infrared vision like the one offered by AdaSky’s Viper can be of great help in closing gap and provide precise perception and sight without failing in dynamic lighting conditions under direct sunlight, harsh weather conditions, as well as for facing oncoming headlights.
The Vice President Hardware of AdaSky, Amotz Kats, adds, “With the help of ST, we have created the first high-resolution thermal camera for autonomous vehicles with minimal size, weight, and power consumption–and no moving parts. ST’s access to, and expertise in, ultra-low-power design, IP that is fully qualified for automotive applications, and 28nm FD-SOI technology have been vital to meeting the severe power constraints that would challenge our sensors’ performance. We’re in a position to deliver a breakthrough solution to revolutionize and disrupt the autonomous vehicle market because of ST’s mastery of automotive qualification and its strong manufacturing supply chain, which grants reliability, long-term support, and business continuity to car makers throughout the whole life of their production. “
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