The smart factory, located in Sunnyvale, California, features fully automated production line
Quanergy, a provider of solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions has recently opened a smart factory in California to mass produce solid state 3D LiDAR sensors.
Quanergy’s new smart factory, located in Sunnyvale features a high-capacity, fully automated production line, located in a clean room environment.
The line features state-of-the-art semiconductor handling and packaging equipment, including high-precision photonic IC processing tools and a conveyor system connecting the machinery that turns a silicon wafer cassette into finished LiDAR sensors. The company’s new smart manufacturing plant also includes calibration and final testing, enabling Quanergy to oversee the entire production process. The manufacturing facility also has the capability to expand to increase capacity based on market demands.
“This manufacturing facility represents our most significant milestone to date in realizing Quanergy’s goal to bring capable, reliable, and affordable electronically-steered solid state LiDAR sensors to mass market,” said Louay Eldada, founder and CEO of Quanergy. “We fully expect that these sensors will play an integral role in bringing self-driving vehicles to the road, as the unparalleled solid state reliability and silicon CMOS cost make them only viable sensors for the production of Level 4 and Level 5 (highly and fully automated) passenger vehicles, and will also contribute to groundbreaking applications in industrial automation and security.”
The company highlighted that the patented S3 is the world’s only affordable solid state LiDAR sensor, designed to provide the highest level of performance, reliability and durability required in safety-critical applications such as autonomous vehicles. Its compact configuration allows the sensor to be concealed within the body of a vehicle or machine without compromising its design aesthetics or aerodynamics.
Quanergy said that the new smart factory is key for the company’s future plans as the mass production of the S3 enables smart automation based on HD 3D sensing, classification and tracking. The sales price of the S3 currently varies between several hundred and a few hundred dollars, depending on the quantity ordered. With higher levels of integration in future sensor generations on the product roadmap, Quanergy estimates the price will drop below $100 per sensor.
Founded in 2012, Quanergy Systems is a provider of LiDAR sensors and perception software for real-time capture and processing of 3D spatial data and object detection, identification, classification and tracking. Its solutions are applicable in numerous sectors including transportation, security, industrial automation, 3D mapping, mining, agriculture, drones, robotics, smart spaces and 3D-aware smart devices.