innovation
The MOST car ring showing the interconnected components.
Shining a light on optical semiconductor technology
By: Lenny Case
New developments in automotive head-up displays, micro-projectors and other applications are expected to be spurred by the recent introduction of an ultra-compact, high-precision MicroElectroMechanical System( MEMS) mirror by Hamamatsu Photonics of Japan.
The electromagnetically-activated laser scanning MEMS mirror is available in one-dimensional and two-dimensional formats. Hamamatsu is a global leader in photoelectron conversion
Dr. Peter Eggl, Managing Director, Hamamatsu
Photonics Europe.
technologies. The company’ s opto-semiconductor products are used in a wide range of sectors, including the automotive industry. Hamamatsu says its quality policy is to“ take responsibility as an opto-semiconductor manufacturer to establish a quality control system that provides products the customers needs and contribute to the progress of industry and science”.
The company says it constantly looks for ways to make products that are better, cheaper, faster and eco-friendly. In-house process and packaging technology is being used to develop automotive devices that are highly reliable over a wide operating / storage temperature range. Products include transmitter and receiver devices for high-speed transmission of entertainment information that conforms to the MOST network standards and plastic optical fiber or POF. It also makes high-speed photo-sensors used in systems to measure the distance between vehicles as well as also makes photodiodes and infrared LEDs for rain sensors and light emitting and receiving modules for vehicle information and communication systems.
Automotive Industries( AI) asked Dr. Peter Eggl, Managing Director, Hamamatsu Photonics Europe how he would describe Hamamatsu’ s leadership and expertise in providing advanced optical solutions across a wide range of automotive applications.
Eggl: The strength of Hamamatsu Photonics is our ability to offer customized optical solutions which are fitted to the specific needs of our automotive customers. Excellent customer support is our highest priority for that. Our local key account managers- who are also engineers- as well as our product engineers from the headquarters in Japan, assist the customer during the whole development, qualification and later series production phase with any technical, quality, legal, commercial and application-related challenges. With our deep knowledge of optical semiconductor technologies and our long experience in the development and production of high quality parts for the automotive market, we are a reliable long-term partner for innovative new products. There are tens of millions of parts operating reliably in the field today, and we are proud to be an A-rated supplier with failure rates far below 1ppm.
AI: Tell us about the automotive infotainment solutions that your company offers.
Eggl: We offer fiber optical transceivers for audio, video and other data transmission via MOST bus. The latest generation is capable of 150 Mbps transmission, which is used to transport data between the infotainment devices – for example from the radio to the amplifier and loudspeakers, or from the TV tuner or Blu-ray player to the HD screens. There is also a MOST Ethernet channel available, which makes it easy to plug in external devices, such as Smartphones or tablets which can be used in the car network to, for example, control the radio, listen to music or watch a movie from the hard disk in the car. The optical MOST network is the standard in cars today, as the optical fiber transmission has
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