Advanced Semiconductor-Based Sensor Technologies for Autonomous Drone Navigation and Flight Control: A Systematic Review
Keywords:
FMCW radar, MEMS IMU, Semiconductor sensors, Sensor fusion, UAV navigationAbstract
Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) rely on a dense stack of semiconductor-based sensors inertial, radar, photonic, imaging, and environmental to perceive their state and surroundings at update rates fast enough for stable closed-loop flight control. This article reviews the principal semiconductor sensing modalities used in modern drone navigation, including Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), CMOS/SiGe-integrated Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) radar, solid-state and photonic-integrated LiDAR, CMOS image sensors, semiconductor GNSS receiver chipsets, and Hall-effect/barometric devices, together with the semiconductor motor-driver/ESC circuitry that closes the control loop to the propellers. Each technology’s operating principle, integration architecture, and role within a multi-sensor fusion pipeline is examined, with particular attention to the semiconductor integration techniques that have enabled today’s small Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) sensor packages. A case study maps the full sensor suite onto a representative quadcopter airframe, and a comparative specification table summarizes range, update rate, accuracy, and power across sensor families. The article further discusses sensor fusion architectures (Kalman-filter and factor-graph based) for state estimation, radar/LiDAR/vision-based obstacle avoidance, the role of semiconductor sensor miniaturization in enabling swarm UAV navigation, the specific challenge of inertial drift in GNSS-denied environments, regulatory and safety considerations for autonomous flight certification, and the outlook for radar-on-chip and photonic-integrated navigation sensors. The discussion draws on insights from a comprehensive review of semiconductor radar technology together with recent advances in UAV avionics, sensor fusion, and drone regulation to provide a system-level perspective on how semiconductor sensor innovations are shaping the next generation of autonomous flight.
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