Current and Future Detector Designs for Flash Lidar

The roadmap for creating lidar sensors for autonomous cars and robots is moving into a new era. Becoming ever more important are technologies such as sensor fusion and embedded AI, which are poised to enhance the performance, efficiency, and acceptance of lidar sensors. Additionally, on a hardware level, lidar components such as laser sources and detectors are becoming increasingly powerful. Jennifer Ruskowski gives a brief overview of the Fraunhofer IMS’s lidar development activities, from light detector to system design to sensor fusion and embedded AI solutions.

About the presenter
Jennifer Ruskowski, Ph.D., studied physics at the Technical University Aachen (RWTH) in Germany. She then worked with the Fraunhofer IMS for her doctoral research, which concerned sensor packaging and integration at the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. From 2016 to 2020, she was responsible for 3D-sensor research activities at the Fraunhofer IMS. During this time, the IMS’s first lidar sensors—CMOS SPAD Arrays—were developed and presented. Today, as Head of Mobility at the Fraunhofer IMS, she promotes autonomous and emissions-free mobility by coordinating progress in new sensor solutions.