TechInsights Teardown: Velodyne Velarray H800 lidar

Lidar is becoming a staple in current and future automotive designs as the move to incorporate advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) into vehicles.

While lidar is purportedly going to be one of the critical components in future autonomous vehicles, the current cycle of automotive development is focusing more on using it for the ADAS aspect as these functions are being more incorporated into today’s vehicles to add value and differentiate between competitors.

Velodyne has been one of the pioneers in developing lidar for the automotive market and the Velarray H800 lidar sensor is designed specifically for ADASs as well as autonomous mobility applications. The company followed up the release of the H800 lidar with its Velarray M1600 solid state lidar device targeted for more mobile devices such as robotics, security systems, drones and industrial equipment sensing.

The Velarray H800 uses several small lasers to identify the environment around it powered by Xilinx’s Artix07 field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The following is a partial deep dive into the Velodyne Velarray H800 lidar conducted by TechInsights.

Summary

• Small lasers
• Artix-7 FPGA

Price: $3,780

Availability: Worldwide

Target market: Automotive

Released: January 2021

The main board found inside the Velarray H800 is the main processing system for the lidar controller powered by the Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA. Source: TechInsights

Main board

The main board of the Velarray H800 lidar system contains the main components needed to process the data and enable the mapping of the surroundings inside a vehicle. The main component is the Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA in the center of the board. Other electronic components that surround the process include:

• 14-bit DAC, DC-DC controller and dual operational amplifier from Analog Devices
• 12-bit ADC and temperature sensor from Texas Instruments
• 8-bit bus and dual supply level transceiver from Nexperia
• Serial NOR flash memory from Micron
• Serial EEPROM memory from ST Microelectronics

(Learn more about FPGAs on Globalspec.com)

The power board inside the Velarray H800 lidar system from Velodyne. Source: TechInsights

Power board

The power board contains power management ICs such as Analog Devices’ Buck-boost DC-DC converter, LDO regulator, 12-bit ADC, 500 mA VLDO regulator and synchronous step-down regulator. Also the board has TI’s current sense amplifier.

(Learn more about power management ICs on Globalspec.com)

The secondary board features electronic components used to enable mapping of the environment by the Velarray H800 lidar. Source: TechInsights

Secondary board

The secondary board inside the Velarray H800 lidar sensor contains:

• Automotive camera system-on-chip from Realtek
• TI’s voltage translator and LDO regulator
• Analog Devices’ diode controller
• Diodes Inc.’s N-channel MOSFET.

(Learn more about camera semiconductors on Globalspec.com)

The main components found inside the Velodyne Velarray H800 lidar system. Source: TechInsights

Major components

• $26.15 — Small active laser — (Qty: 8)
• $15.15 — Artix-7 FPGA — Xilinx (Qty: 1)
• $13.03 — Middle enclouse (Qty: 1)
• $9.91 — GaN power FET - (Qty: 4)
• $9.82 — Front enclosure (Qty: 1)
• $9.40 — Back enclosure (Qty: 1)
• $6.41 — Small passive safety capacitor (Qty: 8)
• $6.14 — Lens #2 (Qty: 1)
• $6.14 — Lens #2 (Qty: 1)
• $5.53 — Lens #1 (Qty: 1)