Lidar is a high-performance system for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from space at a global scale. However, this type of instrument generally includes a complex laser system which has led in the past to significant delays of several European payloads (e.g. ADM-Aeolus, EarthCARE or MERLIN). HALLOA targets the development of a hybrid laser architecture, less complex than current free-space lasers, for greenhouse gas monitoring by Lidar. This laser architecture combines the advantages of fiber-based systems (compact and alignment-free) with those of free-space direct generation systems (high power). This development aims to reach the genuine optical performance for Lidar CO2/H2O monitoring from space and, for independency purpose, to use EU-only components/sub-systems. HALLOA will: 1- Develop new EU industrial capabilities and reach EU independency for two key critical sub-systems of the hybrid laser: the 2,05 m pulsed fiber amplifier and the high-power laser diode at 793 nm 2- Space qualify to TRL6, the pulsed fiber amplifier at 2.05m and the high-power laser pump diode at 793 nm 3- Demonstrate experimentally that a complete hybrid laser system, built with EU-only components/sub-systems, can meet the space-mission requirements for Lidar CO2/H2O monitoring. Finally, HALLOA will provide a technical roadmap to establish a European supply chain for the 2m hybrid-laser system for Lidar application, including a business plan for commercial exploitation of the pulsed fiber amplifier at 2m and a strategy for space mission insertion. The project involves 6 entities, including 3 non-profit research entities (ONERA, LMD, LZH), 2 industry key-players (KEOPSYS, LPI) and 1 SME (ERDYN). It will pave the way for building a cutting-edge and competitive European supply-chain. The TRL6 demonstration of a hybrid laser system in the eye-safe region for Lidar CO2 measurements will represent a major step forward for EU technological independence in this domain.

Miniaturized, yet highly sensitive and fast LiDAR systems serve market demands for their use on platforms ranging from robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles (cars, trains, boats, etc.) that are mostly used in complex environments. The widespread use of high performance LiDAR tools faces a need for cost and size reduction. A key component of a LiDAR system is the light source. Very few laser light sources exist that provide sufficient performance to achieve the required distance range, distance resolution and velocity accuracy of the emerging applications identified in LiDAR roadmaps. The available sources, namely single mode or multimode laser diodes and fiber lasers, are either very costly, not sufficiently robust or not compact enough. In OPHELLIA, we will investigate advanced materials and integration technologies directed to produce novel PIC building blocks, namely high gain, high output power (booster) amplifiers and on-chip isolators that are not yet available in a PIC format with the required performance. The novel building blocks will be monolithically integrated onto the Si3N4 generic photonic platform to produce high performance laser sources with unprecedented high coherence and high power, which will have a profound impact on the performance of the systems. Advanced packaging will further contribute to a dramatic reduction of the overall cost. To achieve this ambitious goal, OPHELLIA will leverage the expertise of its consortium members, ranging from materials, integration technologies and PIC design to packaging and LiDAR systems integration, which covers the full chain from innovation to the deployment of the technology in a relevant environment. The successful realization of OPHELLIA will not only represent a milestone towards the widespread utilization of LiDAR systems, but the developed building blocks will also have an enormous impact in other emerging application fields such as datacom/telecom, sensing/spectroscopy and quantum technology.

VIZTA project, coordinated by ST Micrelectronics, aims at developing innovative technologies in the field of optical sensors and laser sources for short to long-range 3D-imaging and to demonstrate their value in several key applications including automotive, security, smart buildings, mobile robotics for smart cities, and industry4.0. The key differentiating 12-inch Silicon sensing technologies developed during VIZTA are: • Innovative SPAD and lock-in pixel for Time of Flight architecture sensors • Unprecedent and cost-effective NIR and RGB-Z filters on-chip solutions • complex RGB+Z pixel architectures for multimodal 2D/3D imaging For short-range sensors : advanced VCSEL sources including wafer-level GaAs optics and associated high speed driver These developed differentiating technologies allows the development and validation of innovative 3D imaging sensors products with the following highly integrated prototypes demonstrators: • High resolution (>77 000 points) time-of-flight ranging sensor module with integrated VCSEL, drivers, filters and optics. • Very High resolution (VGA min) depth camera sensor with integrated filters and optics For Medium and Long range sensing, VIZTA also adresses new LiDAR systems with dedicated sources, optics and sensors Technology developments of sensors and emitters are carried out by leading semiconductor product suppliers (ST Microelectronics, Philips, III-V Lab) with the support of equipment suppliers (Amat, Semilab) and CEA Leti RTO. VIZTA project also include the developement of 6 demonstrators for key applications including automotive, security, smart buildings, mobile robotics for smart cities, and industry4.0 with a good mix of industrial and academic partners (Ibeo, Veoneer, Ficosa, Beamagine, IEE, DFKI, UPC, Idemia, CEA-List, ISD, BCB, IDE, Eurecat). VIZTA consortium brings together 23 partners from 9 countries in Europe: France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Luxembourg, Latvia, Sweden, Hungary, and United Kingdom.