NEUBIBERG (dpa-AFX) - Infineon Technologies AG (IFNNY.PK) announced it has acquired 100 percent of Innoluce BV, a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Both companies agreed on confidentiality on the terms.
'With this acquisition, we take a big step into the lidar technology that will play an important role in the safety cocoon essential to fully automated cars. We intend to make lidar an affordable feature for every new-built car worldwide,' said Peter Schiefer, President of the Automotive division at Infineon.
Innoluce has a strong expertise in micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS. It is an innovator of miniature laser scanning modules that integrate silicon-based solid-state MEMS micro-mirrors. Such micro-mirrors are necessary to adjust the laser beams in automotive light detection and ranging (lidar) systems. Lidar, radar and camera will be the three key sensor technologies for semi-automated and fully automated cars. While radar uses radio-frequency electromagnetic waves, lidar employs laser beams to measure the distance to objects adjacent to the car. Scanning lidar systems help to detect small objects on the road.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX