Silanna FirePower Octane Brings Eight-Channel Control to LiDAR

Silanna’s FirePower Octane pairs the SL2120 eight-channel gate driver with the SL2130 eight-channel GaN FET array for LiDAR and time-of-flight ranging systems using VCSEL or edge-emitting lasers. Silanna reports more than 200 W of peak power per channel, sub-nanosecond pulses, and typical rise and fall times of 400 ps. The architecture scales in eight-channel increments to support 64- and 128-channel laser arrays, with independent control of pulse timing, peak power, repetition frequency, and pulse-train generation. According to Silanna, transmitters using the chipset can be up to 70% smaller and cost more than 30% less than traditional implementations. This video explores its architecture, programmability, and sensing applications.