Voyant Photonics has unveiled its Helium™ Platform, featuring a fully solid-state LiDAR sensor system built on innovative silicon photonics technology.
This development marks a significant advancement in the frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR landscape, offering enhanced reliability, integration, and performance tailored for sectors like industrial automation, robotics, and mobile autonomy.
Helium's Innovative Architecture
The Helium platform utilizes Voyant's proprietary Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology
The Helium platform utilizes Voyant's proprietary Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology. Its design integrates a dense, two-dimensional photonic focal plane array with on-chip beam steering, effectively eliminating the need for conventional scanning methods such as MEMS and mirrors.
The result is a solid-state LiDAR with no moving parts, ensuring durability and precision. Adaptable to various configurations, Helium combines capabilities such as wide-field-of-view (FoV) short-range and narrow-FoV long-range sensing, making it a versatile and cost-effective choice for advanced perception applications.
Showcasing at CES 2026
Voyant plans to showcase the Helium prototype at their booth during CES 2026, taking place in Las Vegas from January 6-9.
This event marks a significant milestone, transitioning silicon-photonics LiDAR from research and development to high-volume deployment aimed at proliferating Physical AI. Voyant CEO Clément Nouvel states, "Helium represents the next step in our mission to deliver the most affordable high-performance LiDAR sensor ever."
Extending Proven Technology
Helium pushes the boundaries with full two-dimensional beam steering within a silicon-photonics platform
Building upon the foundation of the Carbon™ product line, Helium pushes the boundaries with full two-dimensional beam steering within a silicon-photonics platform. This development introduces a compact 4D sensor that adheres to industry standards for safety and reliability.
Key features include a solid-state configuration devoid of MEMS or polygon scanners, as well as a high-resolution FPA design capable of spanning from 12,000 to over 100,000 pixels. The system also offers long-range FMCW performance and software-defined LiDAR (SDL) that facilitates adaptive scanning and tailored regions of interest.
Reliability and Scalability
The Helium platform delivers improved reliability, with an estimated 20-fold increase in mean time between failures (MTBF) over traditional Time-of-Flight (ToF) LiDAR systems.
With its 2D array of photonic antennas and integrated electronics, Helium offers a robust solution for embedded applications. The platform is engineered for scalable manufacturing, relying on Voyant’s Silicon-photonics technology to eliminate unreliable optical alignments common in conventional systems.
Modular LiDAR Solutions
The platform provides flexibility in design, with options for different resolutions and fields of view
Voyant continues to expand its offerings, allowing OEMs to integrate Helium's sensing technology directly into their systems. The platform provides flexibility in design, with options for different resolutions and fields of view.
It accommodates a range of applications, from mobile robots and smart infrastructure to edge-compute platforms, by enabling the selection of lenses and configurations matched to specific requirements.
Early Access and Collaboration Opportunities
Voyant invites select OEMs and automation partners to participate in an early access program for Helium.
This collaborative opportunity includes direct engagement with Voyant’s engineering teams to explore custom chip resolutions, module configurations, and software-defined scanning features, setting the stage for advancements in LiDAR technology across various domains.
Voyant Photonics, the pioneer in chip-scale frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR, now announced its Helium™ Platform of fully solid-state LiDAR sensors and modules.
The solution 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.
Voyant’s proprietary Photonic Integrated Circuit
Leveraging Voyant’s proprietary Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC), 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 — eliminating all unreliable scanning methods: MEMS, mirrors, and resulting in no moving parts.
The FMCW LiDAR chip leverages 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 — delivering the most versatile and cost-effective LiDAR solution for advanced perception applications.
Advancing silicon-photonics LiDAR
Helium's first prototype release will be demonstrated at Voyant’s booth (LVCC, West Hall, Booth #4875) at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, January 6-9, marking a major milestone in advancing silicon-photonics LiDAR from R&D into high-volume systems that are proliferating Physical AI.
“Helium represents the next step in our mission to deliver the most affordable high performance LiDAR sensor ever,” said Voyant CEO Clément Nouvel. “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.”
A flexible platform to move solid-state LiDAR forward
Helium extends the technology foundation proven in Voyant’s Carbon™ product line, bringing full two-dimensional beam steering to a silicon-photonics platform for the first time. The result is a compact, high-precision 4D sensor that meets the highest industry standards for safety and reliability.
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
Legacy ToF LiDAR architectures
Field of view and range can be tailored with different lenses, and the platform scales from core module options to 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, Helium offers an estimated 20× improvement in MTBF over legacy ToF LiDAR architectures —a critical reliability requirement for high-duty-cycle industrial fleets.
Engineered for scalable manufacturing
As with the Carbon family, Helium is built entirely on Voyant’s pioneering proprietary silicon-photonics platform, enabling new levels of performance and integration. This deep integration eliminates the unreliable optical alignments that limit traditional TOF LiDAR manufacturability.
Helium leverages the same mature photonics foundry ecosystem as the optical datacom industry — allowing Voyant to scale production toward semiconductor-class cost structures.
Voyant advances a modular LiDAR platform for broader adoption
Voyant established the company’s leadership in compact, cost-optimized FMCW sensing for compute-constrained platforms with its first-generation Carbon™ family, extended last week with the new Carbon 32 and Carbon 64 variants. Helium builds directly on these advances, expanding the architecture from 1D to 2D on-chip beam steering, with higher resolution and a fully solid-state scan engine.
Voyant now enables OEMs to integrate its sensing technology directly into their machines by offering module-only access along with full design-in support. This allows partners to build customized, high-performance sensor solutions tailored to their exact requirements
Helium sensors and modules
Helium sensors and modules will be available with multiple resolution and range configurations, supporting a wide choice of field-of-view options—from ultra-wide coverage approaching 180° down to narrower, long-range targeting optics.
These modular variants enable OEMs and developers to select and integrate lenses that best suit their application, allowing LiDAR architectures to be tailored for mobile robots, material-handling systems, smart infrastructure, and emerging edge-compute platforms.
Early Access Program
Voyant is opening early access to Helium for select OEMs and automation partners.
Early collaborators will engage directly with Voyant’s engineering teams to explore custom chip resolution, FoVs, module configurations, multi-sensor fusion architectures, and software-defined scanning features.
