The new facility features a high-capacity, fully-automated production line 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 facility also includes calibration and final testing, enabling Quanergy to oversee the entire production process and provide high quality and reliability in an industry that has thus far relied mainly on manual labor to build mechanical LiDARs. The manufacturing facility also has the capability to expand to increase capacity based on market demands.

Quanergy has commercialized an optical phased array (OPA) LiDAR based on an ultralow-cost mature silicon CMOS platform. The work builds upon an electronic beam steering DARPA-sponsored program, on which the core team worked in the early 1990s.

The S3’s compact configuration allows the sensor to be concealed within the body of a vehicle or machine without compromising its design aesthetics or aerodynamics. 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.