Next Generation VCSELs

2020.09.24

Xiaochi Chen （陈晓迟）Co-founder

General Manager

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Vertilite

Snapshot

01 Conventional

VCSEL Products

02 Next-Generation

VCSEL Products

03 Summary04

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Vertilite Snapshot （常州纵慧芯光半导体科技有限公司）◼ Founded: December 2015

◼ Global Operations:

Changzhou（常州）, China (Headquarter, Sales, FAE, in-house Epi, Assembly and Testing center)

Shanghai（上海）, China (Customer Support)

Taiwan & US (Supply Chain Management, Local Customer Support)

◼ Team: ~110 employees (17 PhDs, 5 from Stanford University)

Substantial Industry and Research Experiences in VCSEL Technology

• 6’ Epi Growth, Device Optical, Electrical and Thermal Design

• Material and Device Characterizations

• In house III-V Material Epitaxial Growth

• Packaging and testing

◼ Partners: > 150 customers

Top players in consumer 3D-sensing:

• Mobile phone, solution, modules, and components companies

Pioneers in automotive LiDAR:

• Solution, modules, and auto companies

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Vertilite

Snapshot

01 Conventional

VCSEL Products

02 Next-Generation

VCSEL Products

03 Summary04

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VCSLEs in Smartphones

Source: www.apple.com

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How LiDAR Works – Time of Flight

◼发射端VCSEL光源发射激光点阵

◼接收端SPAD测量光飞时间计算目标物体距离

◼生成3D点云图

◼低分辨率点云 + AI算法→高分辨率点云

Source: www.apple.com

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LiDAR Depth API（应用程序接口）

深度API：配备了LiDAR扫描仪的设备，可以实时

使用设备周围环境的每像素的深度信息。例如周围环境对AR虚拟物体的遮挡。

获取深度信息后，可以放置AR对象到周围环境内，并对AR虚拟物体进行遮挡。

Source: www.youtube.com

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广泛的应用领域

车载应用▪ 2025年预计将有超过2500万辆/年智能汽车需要VCSEL芯片，领域产值达万亿美元

虚拟现实▪ 做为当下最热门的技术之一，

AR/VR 市场在2025年预计会超过千亿美元级别

智能手机▪ 2025年预计智能手机出货量将高达40亿台/年，市场接近8000亿美元。

医疗器材▪ 随着VCSEL技术的日趋成熟，其在医疗领域的应用不断更新，目前该市场以超过30%的年复合率增长并在2020年超过5000亿美元

物联网▪ 据咨询公司分析，物联网市场将以27.8%的年复合率增长并在2025年超过933亿美元

B2CB2B

Source: Grand View Research; Goldman Sachs Car 2025 Report; GDC Vault AR/VR Report;

Infonetics Research Telecom and Datacom Network Equipment and Software report; Frost & Sullivan Smartphone Market Landscape Report, 2017

通讯应用▪ Infonetics数据预测Datacom市场将稳定在4.9%的年复合增长率并于2025年超过3000亿美元的市场总价值

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2018-2024 VCSEL Market Revenue

Source: VCSELs – Market and Technology Trends 2019, Yole Developpement, May 2019

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3D摄像头在智能手机上的渗透率

2020.9 预测 前置3D摄像头 后置3D摄像头

2019 10% 5%

2020e 12% 10%

2021e 15% 20%

2022e 18% 26%

2023e 20% 35%

2024e 22% 40%

2025e 25% 45%

Source: Richard Liu, Yole Developpement, 2020

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EEL v.s. VCSEL v.s. LED

Epitaxial Growth

Processing,

On Wafer Testing

EEL: Edge emitting laser

VCSEL: Vertical cavity surface emitting laser

LED: Light emitting diode

• Coherent

• Elliptical beam, large divergence

• Cleaving/mirror coating

• Coherent

• Circular beam, small divergence

• Epitaxy-grown DBR mirror

• Non-coherent

• Circular beam, all direction

EEL

VCSEL

LED

Dicing, Mirror Coating,

Testing

Dicing

Dicing

Processing

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Product List

Wavelength

(nm)

Optical

PowerProduct Type Applications Sample Pictures

850 / 940 >10W Regular array LiDAR, Flood

illumination,

ToF 3D sensing,

Structure-light 3D

imaging

(Face ID etc)

850 / 940 2~4 W Regular array,

Custom random

array，TOF module

850 / 940 1 W

850 / 940 0.5 W

850 / 940 150 mW

Singe-emitter，Regular array

Proximity sensor，Gesture recognition，Auto-focus，optical

mouse

850 / 940 15 mW

850 / 940 5 mW

850 5 mW Chip

10G~25G data

communication

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2W 940nm Mass Product LIV Performance

◼ 2W 940nm chip PCE over 45%

◼ The performance is leading in the industry

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Vertilite VCSEL – Excellent over-temperature Performance

Test condition: Pulse, 1000Hz, 10% DC, -40~105℃

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P-(-40)℃ P-0℃ P-25℃ P-50℃ P-75℃ P-85℃

P-95℃ P-105℃ V-(-40)℃ V-0℃ V-25℃ V-50℃

V-75℃ V-85℃ V-95℃ V-105℃

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PCE-(-40)℃ PCE-0℃ PCE-25℃ PCE-50℃

PCE-75℃ PCE-85℃ PCE-95℃ PCE-105℃

◼ PCE is over 40% PCE up to 75℃; over 30% PCE up to 105℃.

◼ Superior performance over a wide range of temperature (-40-105℃) with high PCE.

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Vertilite 2~3W TOF module: PCE over 40% at 60˚C

Dimension: 3.5*3.2*1.25mm

FOV: 60˚ *45˚

Test condition: 1000Hz,10%

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Reliability Test – equivalent field operating life

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Equivalent field operation life (years)

◼ 2W device performances are very stable after over 2600hrs of accelerated life test

▪ Equivalent field operating life of 24 years assuming 24hrs usage per day (or 72 years if assuming 8hrs

usage per day)

▪ Well exceeding customers’ typical lifetime requirement of 3~5 years.

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Rigorous New Product Introduction Flow

Performanceverified

Customer acceptance

Stable yields Mass production

Key milestones

• Demand analysis

• Market analysis

• Technical feasibility

• Project Kickoff

• Pilot production

• Customer production

Correlation Analysis

• Yield analysis

• Cost analysis

• Spec and control

limits

• Capacity analysis

• Manufacture flow

• database

• documents

• PLM system

Project planning

Engineering Verification

Design Verification

Production Verification

Mass Production

• Design review• Process flow• FMEA analysis• Performance

analysis• Customer feedback

• Internal full Qual

• Customer Qual

• Yield analysis

• Corner Case Study

• Design freeze

Project kickoff

Major activities

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Stringent VCSEL Production Quality Control

Production

OrderEpi growth

Fab process（spec limits, SPC）

100% wafer-

level test

Dicing

100% OQC

visual inspection

100% Epi FP

mapping, surface-

scan

100% AOI

（VI spec）PnP

packaging

Shipping out

of fab

100% IQCWarehouse

Wafer Qual

Pass

100% OQC

Shipping to

customerVisual

Inspection

Quality

check steps

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Quality Certificate List

Certification ISO14001:2015 OHSAS8001:2007 ISO9001:2015 QC080000:2017 AEC-Q102

CategoryEnvironmental

Management

Occupational Health &

Safety Assessment

Quality ManagementHazardous Substance

Process ManagementAutomotive Product

Certificate

Note: Automotive Quality Certification: IATF 16949 in progress

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Mass Production - wavelength control

◼ Stable control of epi wafer wavelength meets tight spec requirements.

918

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933

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953

958

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Wa

ve

len

gth

(nm

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Wafer#

Vertilite recent 2000 production wafers

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VCSEL Market Share for ToF

Source: 2019-2020 Market Analysis of Time-of-Flight (ToF) Camera for Smartphone, by Techno Systems Research CO., LTD

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Vertilite

Snapshot

01 Conventional

VCSEL Products

02 Next-Generation

VCSEL Products

03 Summary04

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Key Requirements for LiDAR Light Source

For LiDAR

light source

Low Cost

Superior

Reliability

High Power

Density

- Automotive reliability

(AEC-Q100&AEC-Q102)

- Wide Operating temp

range (-40~105˚C)

- Long distance range (50~250m)

- High signal-to-noise-ratio

- High slope efficiency

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Introduction to Multi-Junction VCSELs◼ What is multi-junction (MJ) VCSEL

▪ VCSEL with several active-region junctions stacked vertically

◼ Features of MJ VCSEL compared to single-junction (SJ) VCSEL

▪ Much higher optical power under same current / same chip size

▪ Need higher voltage to drive the VCSEL

◼ Why we need MJ VCSEL

▪ Market is moving towards longer distance coverage with TOF

▪ Under short pulse, MJ VCSEL can achieve much higher peak optical

power and better SNR

▪ Smaller chip size

▪ Lower current enables high-speed driving and lower system power

consumption

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MJ vs SJ VCSEL array: LIV performance comparison (50˚C)

◼ Under the same current, MJ VCSEL shows higher PCE and much higher optical power than SJ VCSEL

Device

Test condition: 1kHz Pulse, 10% D.C., 50˚C

I (A) P(W) V(V) SE PCE(%)

Triple Junction

(3J)3.5 8.2 4.8 2.7 49

Single Junction

(1J)3.5 3.0 1.9 1.0 44

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Current (mA)P-Single junction P-Triple junction

V-Single junction V-Triple junction

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Vertilite 3J VCSEL array Max PCE 53.7% at RT

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◼ 3J VCSEL array Max PCE 53.7%

◼ Test condition: 10% D.C. QCW at room temperature

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MJ Chip Reliability Data

◼ MJ VCSEL passed a series of stringent reliability tests, including 1000hrs of Accelerated Life Test (ALT)

showing almost no degradation

▪ Equivalent to over 15 years of consumer electronics field use lifetime (assuming 4hrs usage per day)

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Vertilite LiDAR Solution Examples

◼ Multi-Chip Flash solution

▪ Multiple chips in series and parallel in a submount, with increased total power

◼ Multi-Zone Flash solution

▪ Current project: 850nm,1J, 10 zones，30~50W/zone

▪ Optional optics: FOV 90 x 30 deg (9x30 deg each zone)

▪ Project in developing: 940nm, 5J, 10 zones

▪ VCSEL sample available for demoOptics

holder

submount

Multi-chip

Multi-zone

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Vertilite

Snapshot

01 Conventional

VCSEL Products

02 Next-Generation

VCSEL Products

03 Summary04

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Vertilite Competitive Advantages

Vertilite Advantage Details

In-house 6” Epitaxy capability Faster R&D turnaround

Secure capacity (1000/month 6-inch epi wafers)

Strong technical know-how Core team with 20+ years’ experiences in VCSEL R&D and

mass production control

Leading Supply Chain Industry-leading epi and fab partners with competitive cost

Successful mass-production

track record

6-inch epi wafers > 2000 pieces, VCSEL chips > 10 millions

sales@vertilite.com

www.vertilite.com

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