Solid State Beam Steering with a Light Control Metasurface (LCM)
ABSTRACT
Low cost, compact LIDAR systems have long been seen by many as a key component to achieving successful Machine vision and 3D sensing for Autonomous Mobility solutions. Lumotive’s Light Control Metasurface (LCMTM) provides a novel approach to laser beam steering that overcomes the limitations or outperforms more traditional MEMS scanning mirror approaches.
The LCM is an electronically addressable photonic beam forming surface which can be used for LIDAR and other scanning applications or just as easily applied to complex optical switching applications using the same device.
The LCM uses a micron-scale, nanostructured static silicon substate assembled with Liquid Crystal materials to create a tunable optical surface. This allows light to be scanned without the constraints of the physical inertia and mechanical stresses of a moving system, enabling up to 180 deg field of view for beam steering and pointing on an arbitrary, non-continuous motion path.
Commercially available in 2025 as a 1-D steering system, the technology can be scaled without impacting performance to any arbitrary optical aperture limited only by wafer processing constraints. Future innovation will provide 2D beam steering to enable advanced beam forming and complex multi-beam steering applications.
BIOGRAPHY
Jason Tauscher has over 30 years of experience in technology development for MEMS and Sensor systems with a personal focus on technology transfer and execution of Foundry and Supplier Management. Starting from a foundation in wafer fabrication, Jason has led teams and developed technologies in support of AR/VR, Display, Navigation, LIDAR, and Medical Imaging for both internal and external customers that include Microvison, Exo Imaging, Sony and Microsoft. In his latest role as Director of Semiconductor Module Manufacturing with Lumotive, Inc, Jason returns to his roots in scanned beam technology for the commercialization of a novel solid-state light scanning meta surface.