Strategic alliance to repurpose FMCW technology for industrial automation and metrology
10th August 2021. Nikon Corporation (www.nikon.com), Japan, a global manufacturer and supplier of metrology and inspection equipment for the industrial automation and metrology market, today announced a strategic collaboration with US firm Aeva Technologies, Inc. (www.aeva.com) for the use of Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) technology in industrial metrology and automation applications.
For more than 20 years, Nikon has been providing FMCW laser radar technology for large-scale metrology and quality control applications in car plants and aircraft factories, among others. Aeva has developed a radically smaller and highly scalable FMCW module that can measure the instantaneous velocity and position of objects.
The goal of the partnership is to develop next-generation solutions using Aeva’s unique FMCW module for industrial automation, metrology and manufacturing applications; and to accelerate their adoption worldwide by leveraging Nikon’s market-leading position in laser radar technology and excellence in industrial precision.
Mina Rezk, Co-Founder and CTO at Aeva said, “Our unique FMCW module has the capability to provide unparalleled performance through proprietary software on existing hardware. By achieving micron-level accuracy, we are able to unlock entirely new applications beyond automotive navigation. Nikon is a world leader when it comes to delivering high precision industrial solutions in laser radar technology, and we’re thrilled to collaborate toward bringing our unique technology to industrial applications.”
Tadashi Nakayama, Corporate Vice President, General Manager of Industrial Metrology Business Unit at Nikon Corporation, and CEO of Nikon Metrology NV responded, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to use Aeva’s ground-breaking technology to jointly bring to market metrology solutions that provide our industrial customers with unmatched functionality, combining higher accuracy that is scalable, lower cost, more compact and provides superior performance than current solutions.”
Soroush Salehian, Co-Founder and CEO at Aeva added, “This strategic collaboration marks a milestone for Aeva’s expansion strategy beyond automotive applications. We’re excited to work closely with a leader like Nikon in an established market with massive growth potential as we accelerate our expansion into industrial applications. By leveraging our common core architecture that we’ve already developed for automotive, we can bring industry-leading costs to volume scale, which we believe has the potential to upend the growing industrial automation industry.”
About Nikon
Nikon has been a pioneer in optical technology markets worldwide since its inception in 1917.
Today, utilizing advanced technologies, we offer a wide range of products and solutions from digital cameras and binoculars to industrial precision equipment such as FPD and semiconductor lithography systems, microscopes and measuring instruments, as well as solutions for the healthcare field.
In the future, we will take advantage of Nikon’s core technologies to generate new pillars of profit including the material processing business. Nikon strives to be a leading company in the precision and optics fields that realizes sustainable growth of enterprise value in the medium- to long-term.
About Aeva Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: AEVA)
Founded in 2017 by former Apple engineers Soroush Salehian and Mina Rezk, and led by a multidisciplinary team of engineers and operators experienced in the field of sensing and perception, Aeva’s mission is to bring the next wave of perception technology to broad applications from automated driving to consumer electronics, consumer health, industrial robotics and security. For more information, visit www.aeva.com
