Radar Technology to Improve the Automotive Safety Systems

As people pay more attention to the auto safety systems, the semiconductors are beginning to meet the challenge to save lives on the roads. The automobile is becoming more autonomous and more intelligent, the system imbedded in the car also need to be able to control to reduce the severity and frequency of accidents.

In the field of auto safety, radar technology becomes more popular. It can automatically accelerate and decelerates the car to keep that follow distance constant. Some systems also include automatic braking features.

With the technology development, radar technology is stepping from a luxury option to the standard safety option. All we know, sometimes the popularization depends on the reasonable price. As radar becomes more affordable, and offers better performance in terms of target classification and range resolution, it will become a more popular option.

For system designers, it is better to meet the safety features as well as keeping the cost. Additionally, the radar sensor module must be kept small enough to fit into areas of the car, such as behind the bumper, which was not originally designed to house such electronics.

We can meet the challenge with the below two ways: discrete components or an integrated solution.

Discrete parts can be used to build a top-of-the-line custom solution, with every parameter optimized. But it will take more time, occupy more space and cost more to build a radar system of discrete parts than it is to use an integrated solution.

The alternative is to use an integrated chip which can enable the system designer to provide most of the features a car manufacturer is likely to want, even for multiple applications like ACC and BSD, at a fraction of the size and cost. Advances in on-chip signal conditioning let designers program the settings needed for different driving conditions, whether it’s city traffic or motorway cruising, all in one economical package.

With an integrated solution, you can expect to reduce the footprint by at least half. The designer’s life is also made easier by having multiple channels on one chip, because the channels are well matched, and for the driver because the sensor has a wider range of detection. The ideal radar system would sense objects around the car in a 180-degree field of view, much like human peripheral vision. A receiver system equipped with as many as six channels can do this with better angular resolution since it receives a higher number of reflected signals.

Another benefit of the integrated approach is flexibility, particularly given the variability in requirements for radar systems. Integrated solutions can include built-in programmable features such as variable gain and adjustable filters. These reduce the time to market not only for the first system designed, but for all subsequent systems by enabling a platform design approach.