SCIVAX Corporation and Shin-Etsu Chemical have jointly developed Amtelus, a light source device for 3D sensors and technology for its mass-production. The delivery of evaluation samples of Amtelus will start in November 2024, and the sales of the products will be conducted by Shin-Etsu Chemical.

SCIVAX has so far sold Platanus, an optical lens that diffuses and radiates light uniformly, as the 3D sensor light sources that are used in automotive and other various applications, contributing to improving sensor performance.

Meanwhile, in recent years, the areas in which 3D sensing technology is utilized have grown wider, calling for light source devices to be more highly integrated and to have higher performance. However, it was difficult to reduce footprint using the conventional cavity structure, which posed one of the major unsolved issues.

To solve this issue, Shin-Etsu Chemical has developed a high-hardness material that can be processed by dicing, and that has both necessary optical properties and a sealing capability to protect devices. Using this material, SCIVAX has successfully developed Amtelus, the world’s smallest light source device that incorporates the functions of Platanus. This device has achieved a significantly smaller size compared with conventional devices having a mounting area of 1 mm2 or less, 10 times smaller than conventional devices, and with half or less of the thickness.