Voyant Photonics introduces Helium family of fully solid-state lidar sensors and modules

Chip-scale frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) lidar organization Voyant Photonics announced its Helium platform of fully solid-state lidar sensors and modules.

The company said the platform is built on a silicon photonics chip, enabling a breakthrough architecture designed to deliver unprecedented reliability, integration and performance for industrial automation, robotics and mobile autonomy.

Helium to debut at CES 2026 

Utilizing Voyant’s proprietary Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC), the company said that Helium offers camera-like simplicity and unmatched flexibility. Helium uses a dense two-dimensional photonic focal plane array with fully integrated 2D on-chip beam steering, which the company said eliminates all unreliable scanning methods: MEMS, mirrors, and results in no moving parts.

Voyant said the FMCW LiDAR chip uses a two-dimensional array of surface emitters to create a fully solid-state lidar in an ultra-compact, rugged design. Helium also supports multi-sensor configurations, combining, for instance, a wide-FoV short-range and narrow-FoV long-range sensing in one system - which Voyant said can deliver the most versatile and cost-effective lidar offering for advanced perception applications.

The first Helium prototype will be demonstrated at Voyant’s booth at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, January 6-9.

“Helium represents the next step in our mission to deliver the most affordable high performance LiDAR sensor ever,” said Clément Nouvel, CEO, Voyant. “Industrial and consumer markets demand sensors that are small, cost-efficient, and highly reliable. Helium provides all of that while delivering performance that unlocks new classes of intelligent machines.”

Flexible platform to move solid-state lidar forward

Voyant said that Helium extends the technology foundation proven in its Carbon product line, bringing full two-dimensional beam steering to a silicon-photonics platform for the first time. The company said the result is a compact, high-precision 4D sensor that meets the highest industry standards for safety and reliability.

The company said the potential key advantages include:

• True solid-state - no MEMS, polygon scanners or rotating assemblies
• High-resolution FPA architecture spanning from 12,000 pixels to over 100,000 pixels 
• Long-range FMCW performance, per-pixel radial velocity      
• Software-defined lidar (SDL), enabling adaptive scan patterns and region of interest      
• Ultra Compact Size -as small as a matchbox (<150 g mass and <50 cm³ volume), ideal for drones, mobile robots and compact industrial systems

Voyant said that the field of view and range can be tailored with different lenses, and the platform scales from core module options to a fully enclosed sensor. Helium is built on a 2D array of surface-emitting photonic antennas combined with a fixed lens and integrated electronics, forming a rugged module ideal for embedded perception.

With no moving parts and monolithic photonic integration, Voyant said that Helium offers an estimated 20× improvement in MTBF over legacy ToF lidar architectures - a critical reliability requirement for high-duty-cycle industrial fleets.