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SiLC Secures $25 Million in Additional Funding to Advance Machine Vision for AI Applications

SiLC Secures $25 Million in Additional Funding to Advance Machine Vision for AI Applications

SiLC Secures $25 Million in Additional Funding to Advance Machine Vision for AI Applications

MONROVIA, Calif., November 15, 2023 – SiLC Technologies, Inc. (SiLC), a leader in silicon photonics, today announced $25 million in additional funding to bring the total funding proceeds to date, from its Seed and Series A, to $56 million. New strategic participants in the round include Hokuyo Automatic, Hankook & Company, and ROHM Semiconductor, all industry leaders with a strategic focus on industrial, robotics, and mobility vision. They join SiLC’s roster of existing high-caliber investors including Epson, Yamato, UMC, Sony, Dell Technologies Capital and Alter Venture Partners.

The new funding announcement comes on the heels of SiLC’s most recent introduction of four versions of its FMCW LiDAR-based EyeonicTM Vision System. Bridging the artificial intelligence (AI) gap for machine vision, SiLC has engineered the Eyeonic Vision System for vision detection capabilities that span from short distances to over 1 km. The company points to AI as a driving factor for machines requiring the ability to perceive and understand their surroundings in the same way as humans.

“We have significant momentum and support from our customer base, which is recognized by our world-class syndicate of investors. This shows that a genuinely differentiated technology that is proven to work and adds real value will get support from its investor and customer base,” said Dr. Mehdi Asghari, SiLC’s CEO and founder. “Even in today’s economic climate we have nearly doubled our total fund raise. We are excited to have such notable industry leaders join us on our journey.”

The new funds will be used to expand production to support design wins for its Eyeonic Vision solutions as well as continued product development to further application deployments in mobility, robotics, smart cameras, security, and other leading markets.

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“SiLC’s on-chip FMCW LiDAR is very competitive in terms of sensor performance, chip integration and manufacturing know-how. We expect this technology to be applied in various industries in the future, such as industrial robots, autonomous vehicles, ADAS, and AR/VR wearable consumer devices,” said Sumio Utsunomiya, COO, Epson X Investment Corp.

“Silicon photonics is key for the miniaturization of 3D sensors, while FMCW LiDAR enables the use of eye-safe wavelengths, provides instantaneous velocity, and removes the need for high-power lasers to reach long distances. The combination of these two techniques, as SiLC is demonstrating, will soon enable every electronic device, including drones, robots, and wearable devices, to be aware of its surroundings,” commented Dr. Jose Pozo, CTO of Optica, the society advancing optics and photonics worldwide.

SiLC’s mission to enable machines to see like humans is the driving force for the company, where the goal is to equip machines with vision that far surpasses human capabilities. “We’ve logged in milestone achievements in chip integration, precision and resolution performance, range detection, and customer engagement,” added Asghari. “Moving forward, this new funding will help to further fuel our march to bring advanced machine vision to a broader range of applications.”

 

For more information, please visit www.silc.com.

About SiLC Technologies 

On a mission to enable machines to see like humans, SiLC Technologies is bringing forth its deep expertise in silicon photonics to advance market deployment of FMCW LiDAR solutions. The company’s breakthrough 4D+ EyeonicTM Chip integrates all photonics functions needed to enable a coherent vision sensor, offering a tiny footprint while addressing the need for low cost and low power. SiLC’s innovations are targeted to robotics, autonomous vehicles, biometrics, security, industrial automation and other leading markets.

SiLC was founded in 2018 by silicon photonics industry veterans with decades of commercial product development and manufacturing experience. SiLC’s 4D LiDAR chip has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as ideally positioned to disrupt the global LiDAR market and the company has been named a Cool Vendor in Silicon Photonics by Gartner. Investors in SiLC include Dell Technology Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, FLUXUNIT – ams OSRAM Ventures, UMC Capital, Alter Ventures and Epson.

For more information, visit www.silc.com or connect with the company on LinkedIn.
robotic vision sensor from SiLC receives additional funding

SiLC Technologies Advances Machine Vision, Bridging the AI Gap with Bionic Vision

SiLC Technologies Advances Machine Vision, Bridging the AI Gap with Bionic Vision

Unveils Four Tailored Versions of Its Eyeonic Vision System for Applications Requiring Vision that Ranges from Short to Ultra-Long Distances

MONROVIA, Calif., October 4, 2023 – In a world increasingly driven by artificial intelligence (AI), the need for machines to perceive and understand their surroundings in the same way as humans has never been more pressing. Addressing this need, SiLC Technologies (SiLC), a leader in silicon photonics, today announces the availability of four specialized EyeonicTM Vision Systems. Engineered for vision detection capabilities that span from short distances to over 1,250 meters, these systems utilize FMCW LiDAR technology to meet the diverse application needs across various sectors.

Current machine vision systems largely rely on camera systems that capture a mere snapshot of the available data. This necessitates resource-intensive computing to compensate for the missing pieces and inherently falls short of genuine vision

Introduced last year, the Eyeonic Vision System delivers unparalleled vision perception to machines – offering not only the capability to identify objects even beyond a kilometer away but also providing per-pixel velocity and polarization information, unprecedented precision, and interference-free operation

“Since the launch of the Eyeonic Vision System, our collaboration with various OEMs revealed distinct vision requirements, necessitating multiple versions of our solution,” said Mehdi Asghari, SiLC founder and CEO.

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SiLC’s refined Eyeonic Vision System portfolio includes:

  • Short Range – Designed for vision detection up to 50 meters, this version is ideal for AI machine vision tasks requiring high precision, such as pallet and truck loading or product inspection.

  • Medium Range – For vision detection up to 150 meters, suited to home security and factory automation applications.

  • Long Range – Providing vision detection up to 300 meters, this version is tailored for ADAS and autonomous vehicles.

  • Ultra-Long Range – For vision detection that exceeds 1,250 meters and is targeted to drone tracking, perimeter security and airplane ground control.

To date, SiLC is the only company that has built a chip-integrated FMCW LiDAR solution, which is critical for machine vision to emulate the human eye. “Our mission is to change the current state of machine vision, empowering the next generation of machines to integrate seamlessly into our society,” added Asghari. “As AI continues its upward trajectory, SiLC is poised to further innovate in response to market demand. The Eyeonic Vision System is just the start. We’re focused on enhancing angular resolution and embedding solid-state scanning into our single-chip solution.”

All Eyeonic Vision System variants feature the company’s unique technology benefits: robust, compact, scalable, and unaffected by complex, unpredictable environments, conditions, and interferences. Each Eyeonic Vision System variant provides highly precise range, velocity, and polarization modes. With the global machine vision and robotics market forecasted to soar to $12 billion by 2030, SiLC’s solutions are set to reshape industries from autonomous vehicles to augmented reality.

Pricing and Availability

SiLC’s Eyeonic Vision System – in all four variants – is immediately available and shipping worldwide. Pricing varies depending on configuration. For detailed information and specifications, please contact SiLC at sales@silc.com. To learn more about the company, please visit www.silc.com.

About SiLC Technologies 

On a mission to enable machines to see like humans, SiLC Technologies is bringing forth its deep expertise in silicon photonics to advance market deployment of FMCW LiDAR solutions. The company’s breakthrough 4D+ EyeonicTM Chip integrates all photonics functions needed to enable a coherent vision sensor, offering a tiny footprint while addressing the need for low cost and low power. SiLC’s innovations are targeted to robotics, autonomous vehicles, biometrics, security, industrial automation and other leading markets.

SiLC was founded in 2018 by silicon photonics industry veterans with decades of commercial product development and manufacturing experience. SiLC’s 4D LiDAR chip has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as ideally positioned to disrupt the global LiDAR market and the company has been named a Cool Vendor in Silicon Photonics by Gartner. Investors in SiLC include Dell Technology Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, FLUXUNIT – ams OSRAM Ventures, UMC Capital, Alter Ventures and Epson.

For more information, visit www.silc.com or connect with the company on LinkedIn.

4 Eyeonic Vision Systems from SiLC, a leading edge LiDAR company

Indie and SiLC Form Strategic Technology Partnership

Indie and SiLC Form Strategic Technology Partnership

Indie Semiconductor and SiLC Technologies Form Strategic Technology Partnership to Deliver World-Class FMCW LiDAR Solution

  • FMCW LiDAR platform integrates indie’s SuryaTM SoC and SiLC’s EyeonicTM Vision Sensor, enabling the industry’s most compact and highest performance coherent vision system
  • Collaboration delivers 10x performance, power and cost advantages over existing implementations
  • Single solution for silicon photonics optical engine and LiDAR system signal processing 

ALISO VIEJO and MONROVIA, Calif., August 3, 2023 – indie Semiconductor (Nasdaq: INDI), an Autotech solutions innovator, and SiLC Technologies, Inc (SiLC), a leader in silicon photonics innovation, have entered into a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) partnership that enables coherent detection-based LiDAR platforms for next-generation sensing applications, including driver assistance, autonomous mobility, robotics and industrial automation. This partnership will deliver fully integrated vision system platforms deploying frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) detection, redefining benchmarks for rapidly emerging LiDAR applications.

FMCW-based LiDAR delivers multiple real-world benefits compared to direct detection-based Time of Flight (TOF) solutions, including long-range with high precision, interference immunity, per-point instantaneous velocity and motion measurement.  This ground-breaking partnership combines award-winning products from indie and SiLC into reference platforms that enable an order of magnitude improvement in sensing performance, manufacturability, power consumption, form factor and cost relative to competing systems.    

“indie is excited to partner with SiLC to bring the processing innovation from Surya to FMCW LiDAR, offering a breakthrough reference design,” said Chet Babla, senior vice president, strategic marketing at indie Semiconductor.  “By combining the software-defined high-performance – but low power – analog and digital processing and system control capabilities of Surya™, coupled with SiLC’s Eyeonic™ vision solution, system integrators and OEMs are enabled with 4D FMCW imaging for mass market deployment into multiple applications.”

Ralf Muenster, vice president, business development and marketing at SiLC added, “We are excited to partner with indie to bring industry-leading FMCW-based LiDAR platforms to market. Our state-of-the-art FMCW LiDAR sensor features the highest integration, resolution, precision, and longest range of any other competing approach, while remaining the only commercially available solution to offer polarization information.”

Driven by strong market demand, reference platforms featuring Surya™ and Eyeonic™ have already been deployed and are being evaluated by select lead automotive, tier one and industrial OEMs, and both indie and SiLC are actively developing new reference platforms to showcase the scalability and flexibility of their combined technologies.

To learn more about indie’s Surya™ SoC and SiLC’s Eyeonic™ Vision Sensor, please visit: https://www.indiesemi.com/solutions, https://www.silc.com/product/.
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About indie

indie is empowering the Autotech revolution with next generation automotive semiconductors and software platforms.  We focus on developing innovative, high-performance and energy-efficient technology for ADAS, user experience and electrification applications.  Our mixed-signal SoCs enable edge sensors spanning Radar, LiDAR, Ultrasound, and Computer Vision, while our embedded system control, power management and interfacing solutions transform the in-cabin experience and accelerate increasingly automated and electrified vehicles.  We are an approved vendor to Tier 1 partners and our solutions can be found in marquee automotive OEMs worldwide.  Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, CA, indie has design centers and regional support offices across the United States, Canada, Argentina, Scotland, England, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, Israel, Japan, South Korea and China.

About SiLC Technologies

On a mission to enable machines to see like humans, SiLC Technologies is bringing forth its deep expertise in silicon photonics to advance market deployment of FMCW LiDAR solutions. The company’s breakthrough 4D+ Eyeonic Chip integrates all photonics functions needed to enable a coherent vision sensor, offering a tiny footprint while addressing the need for low cost and low power. SiLC’s innovations are targeted to robotics, autonomous vehicles, biometrics, security, industrial automation, and other leading markets.

SiLC was founded in 2018 by silicon photonics industry veterans with decades of commercial product development and manufacturing experience. SiLC’s 4D LiDAR chip has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as ideally positioned to disrupt the global LiDAR market and the company has been named a Cool Vendor in Silicon Photonics by Gartner. Investors in SiLC include Dell Technology Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, FLUXUNIT – ams OSRAM Ventures, UMC Capital, Alter Ventures and Epson.

Safe Harbor Statement

This communication contains “forward-looking statements” (including within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended) concerning indie Semiconductor such as the features, functionality, performance, availability, timing and expected benefits of indie Semiconductor products and technology, including products developed in partnership with SiLC Technologies including LiDAR products.  Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our future business and financial performance and prospects, and other statements identified by words such as “will likely result,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “outlook,” “should,” “could,” “may” or words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond our control. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from the results included in such forward-looking statements. In addition to the factors previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the SEC on March 28, 2023 and in our other public reports filed with the SEC (including those identified under “Risk Factors” therein), the following factors, among others, could cause actual results and the timing of events to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; our reliance on contract manufacturing and outsourced supply chain and the availability of semiconductors and manufacturing capacity; competitive products and pricing pressures; our ability to win competitive bid selection processes and achieve additional design wins; the impact of any acquisitions we have made or may make, including our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and risks that the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions may not be fully realized or take longer to realize than expected; our ability to develop, market and gain acceptance for new and enhanced products and expand into new technologies and markets; trade restrictions and trade tensions; our ability to build, staff and integrate new design, testing, sales and marketing facilities throughout the world; and political and economic instability in our target markets. All forward-looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements.

Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this press release, which information set forth herein speaks only as of the date hereof. We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this announcement or in our other public filings, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Indie and SiLC form strategic technology partnership

SiLC Technologies Launches Industry’s Most Compact, Powerful Coherent Machine Vision Solution

SiLC Technologies Launches Industry’s Most Compact, Powerful Coherent Machine Vision Solution

Eyeonic Vision System Leapfrogs Conventional LiDAR Offerings with Ultra-Long-Range Visibility and Unparalleled Performance; Live Demonstrations Set for CES 2023
MONROVIA, Calif., December 7, 2022 – SiLC Technologies, Inc. (SiLC), recognized for advancing the state of machine vision, today announced the launch of the EyeonicTM Vision System, the industry’s most compact and powerful coherent vision system. The new system features the highest resolution, highest precision and longest range while remaining the only FMCW LiDAR solution to offer polarization information.

The Eyeonic Vision System integrates the company’s unique photonics technology into the industry’s first available turnkey vision solution – a highly flexible subsystem that reduces time to market for manufacturers seeking to incorporate machine vision into their products. Targeted to robotics, autonomous vehicles, smart cameras and other advanced products, the Eyeonic Vision System sets a new benchmark, delivering the highest levels of vision perception to identify and avoid objects with very low latency, even at distances of greater than 1 kilometer.

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“Our goal is to change the status quo for machine vision,” said Mehdi Asghari, SiLC founder and CEO. “When bringing vision to machines the criticality of ranging precision, direct monitoring of motion through instantaneous velocity, spatial resolution for recognition of fine features and polarization for material detection cannot be understated. For machines to augment our lives they must have a vision solution that is powerful, compact, scalable, and unaffected by environmental conditions including interference from other systems. Our groundbreaking technology will empower the next generation of machine vision applications with bionic vision that will exceed that of humans and yet be compact, cost effective and power efficient.” 

At the heart of the Eyeonic Vision System is the company’s fully integrated silicon photonics chip. With roughly 10 milli-degrees of angular resolution coupled with mm-level precision, it provides more than 10x the definition and precision of legacy LiDAR offerings. This enables the Eyeonic Vision Sensor to measure the shape and distance of objects with high precision at great distances.

The new Vision System couples the Eyeonic Vision Sensor and a digital processing solution based on a powerful FPGA. The compact, flexible architecture of the new system enables synchronization of multiple vision sensors for unlimited points/second. The Eyeonic Vision System is highly versatile – supporting multiple scanner options and providing customers with the flexibility to tailor their designs to maximize performance for distance and field of vision for their application. It is accompanied by a broad range of accessories.

CES 2023 – Eyeonic Vision System Demonstrations and Accolades

 

Next month at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, SiLC will be giving live Eyeonic Vision System demonstrations. Tipping their hats to SiLC’s technological achievement, the CES award committee has named the Eyeonic Vision System an Honoree for the prestigious CES Innovation Award.

“At CES we’re showing the industry’s most powerful system, and it is shipping to strategic customers,” added Asghari. “SiLC is poised to accelerate time to market for leaders in the machine vision arena looking to bring unparalleled vision to their applications in the future.”

Pricing and Availability

 

The Eyeonic Vision System is immediately available and shipping worldwide. Pricing varies depending on configuration. To inquire about pricing and customization please contact SiLC at sales@silc.com.

To learn more please visit www.silc.com.

About SiLC Technologies 

 

On a mission to enable machines to see like humans, SiLC Technologies is bringing forth its deep expertise in silicon photonics to advance market deployment of FMCW LiDAR solutions. The company’s breakthrough 4D+ Eyeonic Chip integrates all photonics functions needed to enable a coherent vision sensor, offering a tiny footprint while addressing the need for low cost and low power. SiLC’s innovations are targeted to robotics, autonomous vehicles, biometrics, security, industrial automation and other leading markets.

 

SiLC was founded in 2018 by silicon photonics industry veterans with decades of commercial product development and manufacturing experience. SiLC’s 4D LiDAR chip has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as ideally positioned to disrupt the global LiDAR market and the company has been named a Cool Vendor in Silicon Photonics by Gartner. Investors in SiLC include Dell Technology Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, FLUXUNIT – ams OSRAM Ventures, UMC Capital, Alter Ventures and Epson.

For more information, visit www.silc.com or connect with the company on LinkedIn. 

SiLC machine vision solution

SiLC Achieves Industry’s Longest Detection Range with Its Eyeonic Vision Sensor

SiLC Achieves Industry’s Longest Detection Range with Its Eyeonic Vision Sensor

Breakthrough FMCW LiDAR Transceiver Brings Visibility of Greater Than 1000 Meters to Machine Vision Applications

Monrovia, Calif. August 30, 2022 – Furthering its mission to change the state of machine vision, silicon photonics innovator  SiLC Technologies, Inc. (SiLC) has announced that its Eyeonic Vision Sensor has demonstrated the ability to perceive, identify, and avoid objects at a range of more than 1 kilometer. Having previously demonstrated a detection range of more than 500 meters at CES earlier this year, SiLC has now optimized its technology to go beyond 1000 meters – a feat that no other company can claim.

Ultra-long-range visibility is a requirement in many industries that utilize machine vision, including automotive, metrology, construction, drones, and more. Specific scenarios include providing enough time for a vehicle to evade an obstacle at highway speeds; enabling a drone to avoid others in the sky; and controlling deforestation by making precision mapping and surveying of forests possible.

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Next-gen vision sensors that incorporate millimeter-level accuracy, depth and instantaneous velocity are key to true autonomous driving and other machine vision applications – and FMCW LiDAR is the optimal technology to make this a reality.

First announced in December of 2021, SiLC’s Eyeonic Vision Sensor is a first-of-its-kind FMCW LiDAR transceiver. The heart of the Eyeonic Vision Sensor is SiLC’s silicon photonic chip which integrates FMCW LiDAR functionality into a single, tiny chip. Representing decades of silicon photonics innovation, this chip is the only readily-integratable solution for manufacturers building the next generation of autonomous vehicles, security solutions and industrial robots.

“Our technology platform is flexible enough to address ultra-long-range to ultra-short-range applications which speaks to our understanding of what is needed to truly make machine vision as good or better than human vision,” said Dr. Mehdi Asghari, SiLC’s CEO and founder. “The highly detailed, accurate instantaneous velocity and ultra-long-range information that our Eyeonic Vision Sensor provides is the key to helping robots classify and predict their environment – in the same way that the human eye and brain process together.”

SiLC’s achievement of industry-leading long-range detection follows a string of important announcements from the company, including new partnerships with AutoX, Varroc and Hokuyo.

To learn more, please visit www.silc.com.

About SiLC Technologies

On a mission to enable machines to see like humans, SiLC Technologies is bringing forth its deep expertise in silicon photonics to advance market deployment of FMCW LiDAR solutions. The company’s breakthrough 4D+ Eyeonic Chip integrates all photonics functions needed to enable a coherent vision sensor, offering a tiny footprint while addressing the need for low cost and low power. SiLC’s innovations are targeted to robotics, autonomous vehicles, biometrics, security, industrial automation, and other leading markets.

SiLC was founded in 2018 by silicon photonics industry veterans with decades of commercial product development and manufacturing experience. SiLC’s 4D LiDAR chip has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as ideally positioned to disrupt the global LiDAR market and the company has been named a Cool Vendor in Silicon Photonics by Gartner. Investors in SiLC include Dell Technology Capital, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, FLUXUNIT – ams OSRAM Ventures, UMC Capital, Alter Ventures and Epson.

For more information, visit www.silc.com or connect with the company on LinkedIn.

graphic showing detection range of Eyeonic vision sensor from SiLC

What People
Are Saying

SiLC’s technology is a game changer, their solution enables legacy based LiDAR’s transition towards FMCW, their highly integrated solution enables scalability and shrink-ability and at scale
Kris PengUMC Capital
Building on its silicon photonics expertise, the SiLC team takes an innovative, fully solid-state approach to LiDAR. Its FMCW solution makes autonomy safer in various environments thanks to its long-range and high-resolution sensing. Our investment in SiLC further expands our Mobility portfolio, and we look forward to SiLC growing its business across the automotive, robotics and industrial markets.
Gen TsuchikawaSony Innovation Fund
We are focused on advancing our position at the forefront of LiDAR technology, and thus understand the impact of SILC’s approach will have to enable human-like perception across autonomous driving, robotics, smart cameras and beyond.We are impressed by the team’s accomplishments in silicon photonics and the unprecedented level of integration and scalability of their FMCW chip, which will be key for broad adoption of coherent 3D sensing.
Sebastian StammFluxunit – OSRAM Ventures
4D LiDAR will provide longer range, higher precision, instantaneous velocity and interference-free operation. SiLC is the first company to integrate all of the laser, detectors and optical processing technology needed to create compact, viable solutions in the market. Our collaboration with SiLC enables us to jointly architect an FMCW LiDAR solution that extends Hokuyo's leadership and customer solutions.
Hitoshi OzakiPresident - Hokuyo Automatic Co

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