How the Solid-State LiDAR works (and why everyone bets on it)

In 1607, the Jamestown colony was in a critical situation. English settlers founded it and declared it their first permanent colony in North America. They arrived with total confidence: they knew how to build a town. So they built wooden houses, palisades, shallow foundations, just the English way. But there was a problem: Jamestown was built on a swamp.

Within weeks, houses collapsed, mosquitos propagated malaria, and the water they were drinking caused fever and poisoning. Within months, half of the settlers died. Yet, the remaining didn't figure out a better plan, and too much was already decided. It's only after enduring famine, diseases, and war with locals that they found the right approach, the one that turned Jamestown into the first american colony.

Solid-state LiDAR are that final method. In the LiDAR industry, many have experimented with all sorts of sensors, until mutually agreeing on an "ideal" solution: the solid-state LiDAR. Not only it could reduce cost, but it could also significantly improve the performances.

In this article, I am going to explain to you what is a solid-state LiDAR, how do they work, and more importantly, why they're a better choice than most of the other sensors. To truly understand solid-state, we'll need to also understand mechanical LiDARs, and all their moving parts.

This will be our first point...

The Components of a LiDAR sensor

If you want to understand mechanical and solid-state LiDARs, you'll first need to see the internal components of a LiDAR. Then, we'll figure out how to classify a solid-state LiDAR based on how these parts move.

I am NOT going to describe these one by one, because I would like to instead show you how they all work together.

Keep these in mind, and let's take a look at...

From Mechanical to Solid-State LiDAR

The Mechanical 360° LiDAR

Back in 2017, I took my first LiDAR class. It was featuring a Velodyne 64, which is a mechanical LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) that became the most famous LiDAR in the autonomous vehicle industry. At this time, it was costing over 100,000$, and promised to transform several use cases (indoor, outdoor robotics, SLAM, ...).

The principle of this LiDAR is simple; multiple lasers are stacked vertically on mechanical rotating components that spin really fast.

From here, you start identifying the advantages (accuracy, 360°), but also the drawbacks: it's terribly costly (100k or so in 2017), and better 3D requires more channels - hence more lasers (bigger sensors).

This is how we started introducing the second types...

The Mechanical Mirror LiDARs

In this evolution, we no longer rotate the entire sensor, nor use multiple laser pulses, but instead, use mirrors and polygons. Here is an animation explaining how the next 2 work, that I found in this fantastic video again from Hesai:

• 1D Rotating Mirror: The first alternative could be a single mirror that deflects the laser. Think about it, this is genius! We can use a mirror that spins horizontally to recreate that 3D shape. Of course, we'd need multiple lasers stacked, but we fix the problem of having a rotating platform, which can break.
• Polygon-Mirror: Another alternative is to use ONE laser, and deflect it via the use of mirrors and polygons. In this case, the mirror swings vertically, and the polygon spins horizontally. This creates a 3D representation, which is narrower, can't spin 360°, but produces a functional point cloud.

These two are great, but still require you to use polygons and mirrors. In a way, it's still mechanical. So let's now talk about the true definition of solid-state...

Solid-State LiDARs = "No Moving Parts"

The first time I learned about it was around 2021 when a company asked me to help them choose between multiple LiDARs. At the time, solid-state technology was emerging, and many were saying it was the future of self-driving cars. The definition was repeated by everyone everywhere;

"No Moving Parts"

Huh. What's so problematic with moving parts? Is that so terrible? Well, yes, because when used all day for weeks and weeks, these parts will simply... break!

If we compare solid-state to mechanical LiDARs, we can also see that in 100% of the cases, solid-state is a directional sensor. This means you cannot use it on the roof of your car; you have to orient it very strategically, and you must use several of these sensors if you want a 360° view.

Now, let's try to understand the differences, and how we can get a 3D point cloud without moving lasers.

For this, I'll use the matrix below, which shows the different types of LiDARs based on the components moving. (realize you already covered the first 3 dark rows).

Let's see these, one by one:

MEMS (Micro-electromechanical system)

In a MEMS LiDAR, you're projecting one laser to a MEMS mirror that oscillates both horizontally and vertically. It mimics the LiDAR + mirror rotation, but it's now an oscillation at the micro level.

MEMS mirrors still move, so MEMS LiDARs are not "true" solid-state. Yet, they are excellent alternatives to the mirrors, more resistant to vibrations, and shocks. When looking in more details, LiDAR makes either use a 2D MEMS mirror, or two 1D MEMS Mirror, oscillating horizontally and vertically.

OPA (Optical Phased Array)

What is a LiDAR? It's a device that sends a light wave. Correct? Well, a light wave is a... wave. Yes? And a wave is something we understand. It has an amplitude, a phase, a frequency, and a wavelength! In an OPA LiDAR, we use a phase shifter to electronically steer the light wave. This sounds crazy, but it works. This is really modern, new generation, and a "true" solid-state system, since no part is moving.

Flash LiDARs

In a Flash LiDAR, a diffuser projects a wide, diffused laser illumination which comes back to an array detector, creating a full 3D image in a single exposure. This is a non-scanning technology; everything is illuminated at once.

Was that clear? Well, imagine being in the dark, and trying to illuminate the room.

• You can either agitate a red laser all over the place (scanning devices - MEMS, OPA, ...)
• Or you can use a torch, which instantly illuminates the room.

This is what a Flash LiDAR does, it's a laser torch.

Solid-State Summary

Cool, a quick summary of the last 3?

We now have a good understanding of Solid-State. The question I want to continue with is...

How is Solid-State better than Mechanical LiDAR technology?

There are several aspects that you can already guess, but I'd like to take these one by one anyway.

Better durability (no moving parts)

Mechanical LiDARs have moving parts, which wear out over time and increase the risk of failure in automotive environments (vibration, heat, dust). This risk is real for MEMS (which we saw is partly mechanical), but completely reduced for OPAs and Flash LiDARs. The #1 advantage of using a solid-state LiDAR is this.

Compact & lightweight Design

A mechanical LiDAR HAS to be on the roof of a vehicle. This is not only ugly, but also impractical. On the other hand, a solid-state LiDAR can be nicely integrated in the front of a vehicle. This makes Mechanical LiDAR not such a good option. When you look at the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) industry, most companies like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, etc... include MEMS LiDARs in the front. Its small size makes it ideal for integration into space-constrained platforms like drones and autonomous vehicles.

Let's continue:

Mass Production Capability

Manufactured using semiconductor processes, solid-state LiDARs can be mass produced with lower costs. MEMS are currently the cheapest, but OPAs promise to reach incredible costs (100$ or less). The math makes sense, we got lower size and lower cost, which is always the direction we want to go towards in hardware.

Point Cloud Resolution & High Performance

A mechanical LiDAR solution based on spinning mechanics often provides sparser point clouds, especially vertically, with gaps in coverage compared to dense sensors like cameras. This can lead to blind spots for low or small obstacles. On the other hand, a solid-state LiDAR can capture hundreds of thousands of points per second, and has a higher angular resolution, which is very good for tasks like 3D mapping or obstacle detection.

• With this, a solid-state LiDAR has lower power consumption (good when using drones for example), could resist environmental conditions better, scan faster, and have a flexible field of view.
• Other than the field of view, the modulation itself is very much manageable; most FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) LiDARs are for example based on Solid-State, and NOT mechanical.

In industries like self-driving cars, smart cities, industrial automation, robotics, using something with high resolution, high accuracy, good enough distance/range, and potentially a wide field of view makes total sense.

Range, Resolution, Performance?

The following is to take with a pinch of salt, because it varies very often and some companies have crazy claims. Yet, I also looked at studies like this one from IDtechEx, this one on MEMS mirrors , and that one on OPAs. Here is an overview:

Can you see why MEMS, which even though is not really solid-state is the BEST compromise? It's the only one that can currently be mass-produced at a low price, while keeping good range and high resolution.

You can therefore see how MEMS and Mechanical LiDARs are still the ones being used the most in the industry. True solid-state is a crazy dream, with incredible claims (an OPA LiDAR could reach a cost of 100$). For now, we aren't there yet.

Example 1: Innoviz Technologies

At CES 2026, I have explored solid-state LiDARs with Seyond & Innoviz. On the one hand, Seyond that you already saw, is doing Flash LiDARs, which is "true" solid-state. On the other, Innoviz is very likely doing MEMS, which is... hybrid (still following?).

I would like to start with Innoviz Technologies latest demo:

Did you see how awesome that looks? Now, you can notice how the benefits here are related to cost reduction, to size shrinking, and heat/power reduction. On the other hand, let's now see a demo of a Flash LiDAR:

Example 2: Seyond Flash LiDARs

Here is now the second example, where Seyond gives you an amazing overview of a Flash LiDAR (Hummingbird). This video is originally from my membership The Edgeneer's Land - make sure to be in my daily emails to learn more.

Alright, let's do a summary...

Summary & Next Steps

Here is a bullet point summary of the article:

• The robotics & LiDAR industry tends to use 2 types of LiDARs: Mechanical and Solid-state. While the former has moving parts, the later doesn't.
• Solid-State LiDARs come in 3 categories: MEMS (with moving mirrors), OPA (true solid-state with no moving parts), and Flash LiDAR (projects laser arrays for instantaneous scene capture). They are all directional, lower power, higher resolution, but shorter range and lower reliability than those with mechanical movement.
• LiDAR technology is about sending a laser to the world and measuring the time a wave takes to hit a surface and come back. Yet, this can be done via several processes.
• The semiconductor manufacturing process allows solid-state LiDAR to be mass-produced at lower cost, making it more accessible for automotive and industrial applications.
• Solid-state LiDAR technology is advancing rapidly and is becoming the default choice for applications requiring high performance, compactness, and reliability, including self-driving cars and smart cities.