PMD Technologies

PMD Technologies ag

Formerly| S-Tec (since 1996)
Industry| Fabless Semiconductor
Founded| 2002 (2002)
Founders| Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schwarte [ de ],
Audi Electronics Venture GmbH
Headquarters|

Siegen

Germany

Key people

| Prof. Dr. Bernd Buxbaum
Dr. Thomas May
Jochen Penne
Products| 3D CMOS Image sensors

Number of employees

| 150 (2021)[1]
Parent| ifm group [2]
Website| www.pmdtec.com

PMD Technologies (stylised as pmdtechnologies) is a developer of CMOS semiconductor 3D time-of-flight (ToF) components and a provider of engineering support in the field of digital 3D imaging.[3] The company is named after the Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) technology used in its products to detect 3D data in real time. The corporate headquarters of the company is located in Siegen, Germany.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Products
* 3 References
* 4 Further reading
* 5 External links

## History

PMD Technologies was founded in 2002 by Rudolf Schwarte and the Audi Electronics Venture GmbH[4] as a spin-off of the Center for Sensor Systems (ZESS) at the University of Siegen, Germany. It was the result of over 10 years of scientific research on 3D ToF imaging.Cite error: Closing `</ref>` missing for `<ref>` tag A 3D Depth Camera with Time of Flight PMD sensors was available in the year 2000.[5]

In 2002, together with three other nominees, the developing team of PMD Technologies, represented by Rudolf Schwarte, Bernd Buxbaum, and Torsten Gollewski was nominated for the German Future Prize, which is issued by the President of Germany, at that time Johannes Rau.[6][7]

At the Hanover Fair in 2005 PMD Technologies was awarded with the innovation prize called Hermes Award for its Efector PMD.[8]

In 2009, PMD Technologies received the 2009 European Real-Time 3D Imaging Enabling Technology Innovation Award by Frost & Sullivan.[9]

PMD Technologies took part in Google's Project Tango in 2015.[10] Resulting in the first Lenovo device being released in 2016 with PMD's 3D technology.[11]

In 2019, new offices were opened in Seoul, Korea and Shanghai, China.[12]

## Products

After initially focusing on industrial applications,[13][14] PMD Technologies began to spread their application areas into other fields, including the automotive sector,[15][16] consumer electronics, gaming,[17] security & surveillance, medical technology[18] and live sciences.

In 2013 PMD Technologies cooperated with Infineon Technologies to produce 3-D image sensor chips for touchless gesture recognition.[19]

PMD sensors are used in the exteroceptive sensor suite of NASA's robot Valkyrie.[20]

The autonomous humanoid robot Justin by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is equipped with PMD-sensors.[21]

A collaboration between PMD and Infineon Technologies resulted in a 3D iToF technology which was used in the Magic Leap 2.[22][23]

In 2023 PMD and Infineon Technologies launched the IRS2976C, a ToF VGA sensor, which was the first sensor to be located under the display and to pass Googles Class 3 Face ID certification.[24][25]

## References

1. ↑ "PMD - Infineon Technologies". https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/partner-network/partner-news/pmd_technologies/.
2. ↑ "ifm company". https://www.ifm.com/de/en/shared/company/ifm-at-a-glance/milestones.
3. ↑ "Small and Inexpensive 3D Image Sensor". frost.com. http://www.growthconsulting.frost.com/web/images.nsf/0/8A509A197C4531ED6525766C00295A29/$File/TI_Alert.htm.
4. ↑ Audi Technologiemagazin Dialoge 1/2011 (in German) Die sehende Diode, Johannes Köbler.
5. ↑ Ling Shao, Jungong Han, Pushmeet Kohli, Zhengyou Zhang (editors) (2014). Computer Vision and Machine Learning with RGB-D Sensors. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 15. ISBN 978-3319086507. ISBN 9783319086507
6. ↑ Team 3 | Deutscher Zukunftspreis, Kamerapixel mit Tiefgang: Durchbruch zum schnellen 3D-Sehen , Official Site of the German Future Prize
7. ↑ 3D-Kamera erfasst ihr räumliches Umfeld in Echtzeit, Dr. Norbert Lossau, Die Welt, 12/03/2002
8. ↑ "Einfachheit ist so wichtig wie Zuverlässigkeit", VDI News No. 47 (Association of German Engineers), Heike Freimann, 11/22/2013
9. ↑ Frost & Sullivan Bestows European Enabling Technology Award in Real-Time 3D Imaging on PMDTechnologies GmbH, Frost & Sullivan
10. ↑ (in en) Google I/O 2015 - Project Tango - Mobile 3D tracking and perception, 29 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP9m9a2KEN4, retrieved 2023-11-08
11. ↑ "Sensing the world the way we do - the world's first Project Tango Smartphone" (in en-US). 2016-06-09. https://www.pressebox.com/pressrelease/pmdtechnologies-gmbh/Sensing-the-world-the-way-we-do-the-worlds-first-Project-Tango-Smartphone/boxid/800705.
12. ↑ "pmdtechnologies ag Opens Offices in Seoul and Shanghai". https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2019-01/45642229-pmdtechnologies-ag-opens-offices-in-seoul-and-shanghai-004.htm.
13. ↑ pmdtechnologies timeline up to 2009 (http://www.ifm.com/ifmus/web/pmd_prd_timeline.htm)
14. ↑ Example for a PMD based Automation Product 3D Image Sensor Evaluates Size, Shape and Level
15. ↑ First PMDvision Day – Automotive (in German)
16. ↑ Free space determination for parking slots using a 3D PMD sensor – Scheunert, U. Fardi, B. Mattern, N. Wanielik, G. Keppeler, N. – Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2007 IEEE , Istanbul, 13–15 June 2007
17. ↑ Minority Report – Futuristic Interface Technologies by 3D Vision Inspect Online, July 2009
18. ↑ Time-of-Flight sensor for patient positioning Medical Imaging 2009: Visualization, Image-Guided Procedures, and Modeling; Schaller, Adelt, Penne, Hornegger; Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7261 (2009)
19. ↑ Clarke, Peter (May 29, 2013). "Infineon launches 3-D sensor for gesture recognition". EE Times. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1280896. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
20. ↑ Radford, Strawser, Hambuchen, Mehling, Verdeyen, Donnan, Holley, Sanchez, Nguyen, Bridgwater, Berka, Ambrose, McQuin, Yamokoski, Hart, Guo, Parsons, Wightman, Dinh, Ames, Blakely, Edmonson, Sommers, Rea, Tobler, Bibby, Howard, Nui, Lee, Conover, Truong, Chesney, Platt Jr., Johnson, Fok, Paine, Sentis, Cousineau, Sinnet, Lack, Powell, Morris, Ames. "Valkyrie: NASA's First Bipedal Humanoid Robot". Prof. Aaron D. Ames, Texas A&M University. http://ames.tamu.edu/Val-NASA-JFR-Final.pdf. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
21. ↑ Mobiler humanoider Oberkörper "JUSTIN", Official Site of the DLR Institut für Robotik und Mechatronik
22. ↑ "Infineon, Pmdtechnologies Bring 3D iToF Depth Sensing to Magic Leap 2". eetimes.eu. 2022-07-08. https://www.eetimes.eu/infineon-pmdtechnologies-bring-3d-itof-depth-sensing-to-magic-leap-2/.
23. ↑ "Infineon and pmdtechnologies develop 3D depth-sensing technology for Magic Leap 2 – enabling advanced cutting-edge industrial and medical applications". infineon.com. 2022-05-30. https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/about-infineon/press/press-releases/2022/INFPSS202205-086.html.
24. ↑ "Infineon Introduces New i-ToF VGA Sensor for Long-Range, Low-Power 3D Camera Systems". embeddedcomputing.com. 2023-03-06. https://embeddedcomputing.com/application/industrial/machine-vision/infineon-introduces-new-i-tof-vga-sensor-for-long-range-low-power-3d-camera-systems.
25. ↑ "ToF VGA sensor enables tiny 3D cameras". electronicproducts.com. 2023-02-28. https://www.electronicproducts.com/tof-vga-sensor-enables-tiny-3d-cameras/.

## Further reading

* Prof. Dr.-Ing. L. Overmeyer, S. Kleinert, "Stapeln leicht gemacht – 3D Kameratechnik unterstützt die Ladungshandhabung und hilft Unfälle zu vermeiden", "Industrial Vision" , Vereinigte Fachverlage GmbH, Mainz, 2011

## External links

* Official website

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMD Technologies. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Company:PMD_Technologies&oldid=4242452"