AFE for auto radar provides signal path: 6-channel mux, PGA, LNA, filter, and 14-bit, 80-MapsADC
Bill Schweber, Planet Analog5/25/2011 12:01 AM EDT
If you think cars already have "lots" of electronics, look out: there's more coming, as IC vendors increasingly integrate functionality into smaller packages, thus enabling even more functions to be packed into the vehicle at tolerable prices.
Consider the just announced AD8283 analog front end for automotive radar from Analog Devices, Inc. This IC comprises much of the radar-return receive path, after initial down-conversion from the radar antenna. It feeds the 14-bit, 80 Msps analog/digital converter via six-channel multiplexer (mux) each preceded by its own low-noise amplifier (LNA), corresponding programmable gain amplifiers (PGA), and programmable filters, with an internal reference. Control I/O is via the SPI bus and the 3.3 V CMOS parallel data I/O is designed to interface with a DSP or FPGA.
Key functional-block specifications of the AD8283 include:
- Low noise amplifier with input referred voltage noise below 3.5 nv/√Hz, at maximum gain of 34 dB and sampling rate of 80 Msps
- Programmable gain , SPI programmable in 6 dB steps, over a 16 to 34 dB range
- Anti-aliasing filter, 3rd order elliptic, cutoff programmable from 1 to 12 MHz
- 12-bit, 80 Msps ADC with 67 dB SNR and 68 dB SFDR
- Channel to channel gain matching of ±0.5 dB and phase matching of ±5⁰, over the specified operating temperate range of -40 to +105⁰C
- Input impedance of 200 Ω or 200 kΩ, user selectable
- Power dissipation of 170 mW per channel
Price, packaging, and availability: The AD8283 is $12.00 in 1000-piece lots, and is available now. It is housed in a 72-lead LFCSO packag
Freescale Automotive Radar Millimeter-Wave Technology
Beyond passive safety systems, active safety systems play a major role in reducing traffic fatalities. Active safety systems include adaptive cruise control and collision warning systems with automatic steering and braking intervention.
In a collision warning system, a 77 GHz transmitter emits signals reflected from objects ahead, at the side and to the rear of the vehicle and are captured by multiple receivers integrated throughout the vehicle. The radar system can detect and track objects in the frequency domain triggering a driver warning of an imminent collision and initiate electronic stability control intervention.
Freescale’s expertise in SiGe:C bipolar development has been leveraged to provide a mm-wave-capable variation of the 180 nm SiGe:C BiCMOS platform. Announced in 2006, this technology features bipolar transistors with a 300 GHz maximum oscillation frequency and active and passive models optimized for mm-wave applications.
In a collision warning system, a 77 GHz transmitter emits signals reflected from objects ahead, at the side and to the rear of the vehicle and are captured by multiple receivers integrated throughout the vehicle. The radar system can detect and track objects in the frequency domain triggering a driver warning of an imminent collision and initiate electronic stability control intervention.
Millimeter-Wave Technology
Advancements in SiGe:C HBT technology pushed the emerging arena of high-frequency (>60 GHz) millimeter-wave (mm-wave) applications such as WLAN (60 GHz) and automotive radar (77 GHz) circuits into the reach of low-cost silicon technology.Freescale’s expertise in SiGe:C bipolar development has been leveraged to provide a mm-wave-capable variation of the 180 nm SiGe:C BiCMOS platform. Announced in 2006, this technology features bipolar transistors with a 300 GHz maximum oscillation frequency and active and passive models optimized for mm-wave applications.
Freescale 77 GHz Technology Advantages
Multi-mode, multi-application capability- Simultaneous long- and mid-range functionality
- Allows one radar to be used for multiple safety systems:
- Adaptive cruise control
- Headway alert
- Collision warning
- Mitigation and brake support
- Allows one radar to be used for multiple safety systems:
- Highest level integration
- Most advanced SiGe technology with multi-channel transmitter and receiver chips
- No moving parts
- Extremely reliable
- Resistant to vibration and extremely robust
- Innovative design provides excellent multi-target discrimination
- Including precise range, approach speed and angle data
- High speed FMCW waveform combined with 2D-FFT algorithm
- Provides independent measurements of range and range rate
- Provides superior detection of clustered stationary objects
Automotive Radar Applications
| Application | Detection Range | Safety Aspect | Technology |
| Adaptive Cruise Control | 200 meters | Normal driving; accident avoidance | 77 GHz Radar |
| Pre-Crash | 30 meters | Accident; mitigation of impact | 77 GHz Radar / 24 GHz Radar 76 / 81 GHz Radar |
| Blind Spot Detection | 20 meters | Normal driving; accident avoidance | 24 GHz Radar/ Vision sensor |
| Lane Departure Warning | 60 meters | Normal driving; accident avoidance | Vision sensor |
| Stop and Go | 30 meters | Normal driving; accident avoidance | 77 GHz + 24 GHz Radar 76/81 GHz Radar |
On-Demand Training
Automotive Front-End Radar and Associated Signal Processing
Course Description
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) use a variety of surround sensing techniques. Focusing on radar, we will show the basic design challenges and system architectures, and will propose complete solutions from the front-end components to signal processing and system control. This session will cover current status, architectures and development strategy for the SiGe automotive radar front-end components as well.
**Presented during the 2008 Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando, Florida.
Course Outline
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) use a variety of surround sensing techniques. Focusing on radar, we will show the basic design challenges and system architectures, and will propose complete solutions from the front-end components to signal processing and system control. This session will cover current status, architectures and development strategy for the SiGe automotive radar front-end components as well.
**Presented during the 2008 Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando, Florida.
Course Outline
- Freescale RF technology used in radar application
- Supported radar architectures
- Radar transmission and receiver structure
- Identify the advantages of SiGe for Radar Applications
- Compare and contrast monostatic and bistatic radar
- Describe radar modulation techniques and engine control unit structures for adaptive cruise control
- Describe the basic processing steps which include windowing, detecting targets, clustering and tracking
- Describe features of Freescale’s MPC5561 automotive
ADVANCED AUTOMOTIVE RADAR HELPS CAR MAKERS INCREASE DRIVER SAFETY THROUGH INTELLIGENT VEHICLE DESIGN
Analog Devices’ analog front-end for automotive radar enables adaptive cruise control and blind spot detection in a single, cost-competitive IC.
Norwood, MA (05/25/2011) - Automotive safety is evolving from passive systems such as seat belts, airbags and crash detection to active sensing networks capable of collision avoidance and accident prevention. Radar is an especially promising active safety improvement and has the potential to significantly reduce the number and severity of distracted driving accidents. Analog Devices, Inc. (NYSE: ADI), whose integrated inertial sensingiMEMS® technology helped make airbags a standard automotive safety feature over 15 years ago, is introducing an affordable, high-performance, radar AFE (analog front-end) IC today. Watch this video to learn more about automotive radar and the AD8283 Radar AFE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh7bspSF_PE
ADI’s highly integrated AD8283 automotive radar AFE IC includes the receive path signal conditioning and data capture circuitry to enable end systems for adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and other radar-based detection and avoidance applications.
- Download data sheet and see product page: http://www.analog.com/AD8283
- Order samples: http://www.analog.com/AD8283
- Find more news and information about automotive solutions from ADI:http://automotive.analog.com/en/segment/am.html
“Thanks to national vehicle safety legislation, such as the introduction of legislation requiring mandatory installation of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), fewer drivers died on US roads last year than at any time since 1949*,” said Thomas Wessel, vice president, automotive group, Analog Devices. “This is largely due to the fact that automotive safety has entered the era of the intelligent vehicle, and affordable in-car radar systems with excellent target classification and range resolution are a key feature of that. As in-car radar moves from a luxury option to a standard safety feature, the AD8283 automotive radar AFE will allow designers to program the settings they need for different operating conditions and meet the automotive industry’s exacting quality and cost requirements.”
Performance Radar in an AEC-Q100 Qualified IC
The six-channel AD8283 is AEC-Q100 qualified and operates over the -40°C to +105°C automotive temperature range. The new device allows a radar system to receive a higher number of transmitted signals and decode them for target identification and classification. This translates to more time on target, which improves the radar’s ability to resolve the approximate size of the target.
The AD8283 integrates a 12-bit, 80-MSPS (million samples per second) A/D converter with 67-dB SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) and 68-dB SFDR (spurious-free dynamic range). It features on-chip signal conditioning, including a programmable-gain amplifier, low-noise amplifier, and a programmable, third-order, low-pass elliptic filter. The AD8283 is gain-programmable via an SPI port in 6-dB steps from 16 dB to 34 dB and has <3.5nV/rtHz input-referred voltage noise at maximum gain. The new AFE has 200-Ω or 200-kΩ selectable input impedance and consumes only 170-mW per channel.
| Product | Sample Availability | Full Volume | Price Each In 1,000 | Packaging |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AD8283 | YES | YES | $12.00 | 72-lead LFCSP |
As part of a complete radar implementation, the AD8283 can be paired with ADI’s ADF4158 PLL (phase locked loop).
About Analog Devices
Innovation, performance, and excellence are the cultural pillars on which Analog Devices has built one of the longest standing, highest growth companies within the technology sector. Acknowledged industry-wide as the world leader in data conversion and signal conditioning technology, Analog Devices serves over 60,000 customers, representing virtually all types of electronic equipment. Analog Devices is headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, with design and manufacturing facilities throughout the world. Analog Devices is included in the S&P 500 Index.
Automotive
Design engineers in the automotive industry look to Emerson & Cuming Microwave Products for cost effective solutions for their interference control problems in today’s high performance automotive electronics.
Using technology developed decades ago for military and aerospace applications, today’s automotive engineer relies on radar technology to develop microwave electronics for collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, parking assist functions and tire pressure monitoring among other applications.
Radar systems such as these often require microwave absorbing materials, low loss dielectrics or in some cases EMI shielding products to optimize performance.
Emerson & Cuming meets the challenge by offering products with the highest quality and reliability in the industry.
Links
Automotive Radar Millimeter-Wave Technology |
Radar Solutions for Automotive
Select a Subcategory
RASIC™ Front-End IC's for Automotive RADARs
The Radar System IC (RASIC™) series from Infineon is made up by a group of highly integrated functions for the 76-77GHz range like Transceiver (sender/receiver), Oscillators (VCO) and Dielectric Resonator Oscillators (DRO) for all kinds of automotive and industrial radar applications. The ICs built in Infineon’s SiGe process offer a high level of integration at a lower cost compared to existing Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs) products. They are available as unpackaged bare-die.
Automotive Applications:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Collision Mitigation Systems
- Collision Warning Systems
- Lane Change Assist
- BackUp Radar
Highly integrated solutions for the Radar RF frontend
Infineon has developed and qualified a 200GHz Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) process which is ideally suited for automotive Radar safety applications in the frequency range of 76 to 81 GHz. Automotive qualified Silicon process technology allows much higher integration levels at lower cost and better reliability. Built-in test equipment additionally provides self-test and diagnosis options for temperature and output levels.
With RASIC™, Infineon paves the way for a new era of automotive radar applications in high volumes.
Compared to technologies like Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs) used so far to build radar systems for the automotive industry, Infineon’s SiGe process benefits from its origins in the volume bipolar segment. The unique feature is its robustness which makes it suitable for automotive environments over the full temperature range between -40 degC and 125 degC and full automotive qualification according to AEC-Q100.
Infineon has developed and qualified a 200GHz Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) process which is ideally suited for automotive Radar safety applications in the frequency range of 76 to 81 GHz. Automotive qualified Silicon process technology allows much higher integration levels at lower cost and better reliability. Built-in test equipment additionally provides self-test and diagnosis options for temperature and output levels.
With RASIC™, Infineon paves the way for a new era of automotive radar applications in high volumes.
Compared to technologies like Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs) used so far to build radar systems for the automotive industry, Infineon’s SiGe process benefits from its origins in the volume bipolar segment. The unique feature is its robustness which makes it suitable for automotive environments over the full temperature range between -40 degC and 125 degC and full automotive qualification according to AEC-Q100.
Single Chip 4-channel Transceiver for 76-77 GHz Designed for maximum system integration, the RXN7740 single chip transceiver incorporates all core functions of a radar frontend into a single-chip. The RXN7740, in particular contains: VCO, PA and up to 4 mixers, as well as various on-chip test-functions. Using this component the radar sensor manufacturer can realize a 4-channel monostatic system for Long-Range Applications (e.g. Adaptive Cruise Control, ACC)
Long-Distance Car Radar
Affordable radar will let every car see through fog, brake on its own, and track other vehicles hundreds of meters ahead
By RICHARD STEVENSON / OCTOBER 2011
Photo: John Warden/Getty Images
To find out what driving's like when you have a sixth sense, I took a radar-equippedAudi A8 around the highways and byways of Stuttgart, Germany. It was great.
I couldn't help but smile when I pulled behind a huge truck and, resisting the temptation to hit the brakes, focused on steering. The adaptive cruise-control system, which uses a new radar from Robert Bosch that can see hundreds of meters ahead, did the rest. The system gently nestled the car behind the juggernaut and accelerated at my command, so I was able to pull out into the passing lane, all the while getting the most out of the 4.2-liter diesel, which rapidly propelled me to the speed I'd selected.
The system did have its foibles. Once the radar locked onto the car in front of me, and when the car turned hard to the right and then hard to the left, the radar came unlocked. So I took control, applying the brakes well before the emergency braking would have kicked in. That episode was a little disconcerting. Still, I could easily get used to this gizmo.
Most people who have driven for a while using such a radar are loath to ever give it up. And the number of such devotees will only grow as this technology—which now adds about US $1000 to the price of the car—becomes more affordable. The first commercial system appeared in Japan in 1997, on the Toyota Celsior; others soon followed in some top-of-the-line models from the likes of BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, Nissan, and Mercedes. The market has been expanding at about 40 percent a year, and as prices fall, that rate should rise.
Today's systems can dramatically reduce your risk of rear-ending someone else's car, and when most cars have such radars, they will also be much less likely to rear-end you. Once every vehicle on the road is able to sense and avoid others, there'll be no reason why they won't be able to negotiate tailing distances among themselves. Eventually, they might even be sending radio messages about their intentions to one another and to monitors on the roadway over ad hoc communication networks. Smart roads may thus emerge organically.
The first step in that evolution, the democratization of radar, is clearly under way. Next year Bosch will release a less expensive version of its radar, with a range of 160 meters, two-thirds that of the one I tested. This won't be a problem, though, because it's intended for cars that don't go nearly as fast.
Falling costs are the key, but of course, costs don't fall by themselves. Engineers have done their part by ditching the expensive compound semiconductors in their radar sets in favor of the old standby, silicon—but a special form of silicon that's been speeded up.
Illustration: Emily Cooper
I SPY...TROUBLE! Radar senses the car up ahead, calculates relative motion, and anticipates a collision. At first the system flashes a light and sounds a buzzer while readying the brakes; if the driver doesn't respond, it strengthens the alert with a jerk of the car. If after all that warning the car still enters the danger zone, the radar system takes charge and slams on the brakes.
In the late 1960s workers at Mullard Research Laboratories, in England, developed a car radar system that operated at 10 gigahertz, and RCA used the same frequency in its 1972 system. To make the next step and cram such a radar into a small space—such as under the hood of a car—manufacturers had to shrink the array of antennas, keeping each antenna far enough from its neighbors to allow for good resolution of detail. They accomplished this task by moving first to 34 GHz, then to 50 GHz, and recently to 77 GHz. The choice of frequency has something to do with the absorption of microwaves in the air and a lot to do with legislation: The law places strict limits on power for the lower frequencies, which is why systems in the lower bands can look forward just a few meters, only enough to avoid fender benders in stop-and-go traffic.
To manage the higher frequencies, long-range auto radars have until recently required seven or more gallium arsenide–based chips to generate, amplify, and detect the microwave signals. That set of chips costs from $20 to $60—not all that much, it might seem. But those chips have to be connected and tested, and if one fails to work, it must be rooted out and replaced. This labor adds substantially to the cost of any radar based on gallium arsenide technology.
In 2009, the German chipmaker Infineon Technologies, based in Neubiberg, produced a system designed around a single silicon-based chip. Then it teamed up with Bosch and started supplying a more flexible, two-chip variant for radar systems in 2010 models of the Audi A8, Porsche Panamera, and Volkswagen Touareg. Not only are these new systems less expensive, they also have significantly better performance, allowing them to cover more than four times the area in front of the car, four times as accurately.
Even specialists in the gallium arsenide industry expect that silicon chips will grab most of the car radar market. Asif Anwar, director of the program for gallium arsenide and compound-semiconductors technologies at the market-research firm Strategy Analytics, in England, predicts that over the next three years, silicon's share of the chip market for automotive radar will grow from nearly nothing to perhaps 60 percent. Although Infineon will then have captured most of the resulting $120 million market for silicon-based radar chips, it already faces the first signs of serious competition: U.S. chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor, in Austin, Texas, has just started sending samples of its silicon-based chip to automotive radar makers. Other companies are surely following suit.
Infineon has thus overturned the conventional view that silicon chips would never be able to generate, detect, and amplify high frequencies. The problem is that electrons move slowly through those chips—which is why a decade ago Infineon and a handful of other companies were using the faster gallium arsenide to build automotive radar chips. But in mid-2002 Infineon got out of the gallium arsenide business. A year later it was in discussions with Bosch about automotive radar chips based on silicon.
"At that time everybody thought this was not possible to do with silicon-based technologies," recollects Rudolf Lachner, Infineon's program manager for radar technologies. "But we did some high-speed circuits, such as voltage-controlled oscillators, which worked at 77 GHz."
To realize such high speeds in a silicon transistor, Infineon's engineers inserted into the heart of the device a thin layer that was four parts silicon and one part germanium. The idea was hardly new. Indeed, it can be traced to theoretical work that Nobel Prize–winning physicist Herbert Kroemer, now at the University of California, Santa Barbara, did way back in the 1950s. However, the world had to wait until 1975 for the first real device, made at AEG Research Center (now part of Daimler) in Ulm, Germany. Infineon's claim to fame comes from boosting this kind of transistor to record speeds, thanks to improvements in internal configuration and material quality.
Photos: Bosch
EVOLUTION OF A RADAR Bosch's latest long-range system greatly simplifies the radar's printed circuit board. Instead of a handful of gallium arsenide chips to generate, amplify, and detect the 77-gigahertz microwaves, the system uses just one or two (as shown) of Infineon's silicon germanium chips. Click on image for enlargement.
Adding that layer of silicon germanium alloy introduces electric fields that present the moving electron with the equivalent of a downhill path, speeding it up automatically. Now even transistors with 50-nanometer-thick base layers can reach the speeds demanded by 77-GHz automotive radar.
Switching to the new transistor delivers another benefit—very low noise levels. You can speed up conventional silicon transistors by thinning the base layer, but you'll just impede the flow of electrons and increase background noise. To muffle it, you could try to reduce the resistance of the base by doping the silicon with traces of boron, whose atoms each have three electrons in the outer shell, rather than silicon's four. Because there aren't enough electrons to form all the covalent bonds required, you get a "hole," or virtual positive particle, which moves freely through the crystal, increasing its conductivity. Unfortunately, increasing the base doping this way reduces the amplification, or gain. Working with a silicon germanium base layer gets around this problem because it makes its own contribution to the gain, offsetting the losses caused by doping. You can make the base doping very high, explains Lachner. "And by making it very high, you get a very low base resistance, which improves the noise behavior of your transistor," he says.
The fundamental insight stemmed from work Infineon did in the early 1990s while developing chips for next-generation mainframe computers. That project never took off. Nor was the company able to market its chips to mobile-phone vendors: As conventional transistors shrank, their lower cost proved more important than the lower power consumption of Infineon's chips. But soon after, it became clear to Infineon that this technology was a perfect fit for auto radar.
Perhaps it's the fiendishly high speeds of the autobahns that have made Germany so keen on technology to avoid collisions. Or it could be government aid. In 2004, Infineon began a three-year automotive radar program with 10 million in subsidies from the German government. That project allowed the company to collaborate with automotive radar system makers Bosch and Continental and carmakers BMW and Daimler.
Infineon's prototype could operate up to only about 80 GHz, good enough for use in an oscillator but not in the amplifier. That's because for a transistor to deliver reasonable gain at a given frequency, it needs to top out at about three times that value. In 2007, by improving the quality of the boron-doped silicon germanium in the base, Infineon's engineers increased the transistor's maximum operating frequency to the requisite level and soon went on to produce the first commercial silicon germanium automotive radar chips, which ran at 77 GHz. Four years later, Infineon continues to churn out the chips at its huge fab in Regensburg, Germany.
Inserting the silicon germanium layer into the device requires no exotic techniques or extraordinary tools: Infineon simply uses 200-millimeter silicon wafers and grows thin silicon films on top using conventional chemical-vapor deposition. At the appropriate point during the process, a valve opens, germanium-based gases flow into the growth chamber, and a silicon germanium film forms.
One such wafer can yield thousands of chips. "This gives us enough headroom to produce as many automotive radar systems as we would like," explains Lachner. In fact, most of the fab's output of 10 000 wafers goes to other purposes. If Infineon somehow captured the entire automotive market overnight, it could easily satisfy the demand.
So why do other companies, such as TriQuint Semiconductor, in Hillsboro, Ore., and United Monolithic Semiconductors, in Orsay, France, still produce automotive radar chips based on pricey gallium arsenide? For one thing, gallium arsenide is still the biggest player in the radar market at the moment, and these firms can sell a lot of chips, at least for a few years. Also, these companies don't necessarily have silicon production lines to switch to, nor would it make sense to build a full-blown silicon fab for car radar alone.
Photo: Bosch
COURTING DANGER: On a Bosch test track, the black demo car approaches the dummy car too quickly, alerting the radar system, which applies the brakes in time to prevent or at least soften the crash.
Cost isn't the only thing driving change. It's not only cheaper to use one Infineon chip (or two, in the fancier system); it's also more effective than the handful of gallium arsenide chips it replaces. When Bosch upgraded Infineon's product during the development of its third-generation long-range radar (dubbed, unimaginatively, the LRR3), both the minimum and maximum ranges of its system got better: The minimum range dropped from 2 meters to half a meter, and the maximum range shot from 150 to 250 meters. At the same time, the detection angle doubled to 30 degrees, and the accuracy of angle and distance measurements increased fourfold. The superiority stems from the significantly higher radar bandwidth used in the systems containing the silicon-based chips, says Thomas Fuehrer, Bosch's senior manager for strategic marketing for driver assistance: "It is around 200 megahertz on the LRR2, and we are now using 500 MHz on the LRR3."
Another selling point is the new system's compact size—just 7.4 by 7 by 5.8 centimeters. "If you are comparing it with the competitor's systems, this really is a very small masterpiece," Fuehrer says. What it means is that automobile designers can stick this thing just about anywhere—even in the headlamp assembly.
The system employs four antennas and a big plastic lens to shoot microwaves forward and also detect the echoes, all the while ramping the emission frequency back and forth over that big fat 500-MHz band. (Because the ramping is so fast, the chance of two or more radars interfering is extraordinarily low.) The system compares the amplitudes and phases of the echoes, pinpointing each car within range to within 10 cm in distance and 0.1 degree in displacement from the axis of motion. Then it works out which cars are getting closer or farther away by using the Doppler effect—the change in frequency associated with motion that also causes us to perceive a train whistle to rise in pitch as it approaches us and fall as it pulls away. In all, the radar can track 33 objects at a time.
On the Audi A8, you receive two separate warnings when you get worryingly close to the car in front. First, a high-pitched alarm sounds, and a light appears on the dashboard. If that sound-and-light show doesn't work, then comes a short, sharp brake to snap you out of your stupor. "Tests and studies show that most drivers will then immediately look forward at the road and notice if they are too close," says Bernhard Lucas, head of Bosch's department for developing car radar hardware.
Even braking may not prevent a collision: Statistics gathered by Bosch show that nearly half of rear-end crashes are caused by drivers pressing the brake pedal too softly. But if that happened in the radar-equipped Audi A8, additional braking would be applied automatically.
If worse comes to worst, the braking system goes into action by itself. "In rare cases where the driver is completely unable to do anything—he is helpless or half dead—full emergency braking is applied when the crash is really unavoidable," says Lucas. Then the car decelerates abruptly, throwing the driver forward into the safety belt with up to six times the force of gravity but minimizing what would otherwise be a catastrophic impact with the car in front.
Of course, you'll probably never have to call on such emergency powers to save your life. Few people even consider such features when purchasing a car. That's why the day-to-day operation of the system is important for winning over the driver. Today, the benefits come mainly in the form of a radar-enhanced cruise control. You can set your radar to lock onto the vehicle in front and keep pace with it, braking and speeding up appropriately. You specify the following distance and the maximum allowable speed, which can be as high as 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour).
It is interesting that when Audi, Porsche, and VW started making radar-ready cars last year, all three companies chose to use the radar as a driving aid rather than afull-blown autopilot. They thus reduced their liability for any accidents that might ensue. Today, it's clear that the main roadblock for a software-based chauffeur are legal worries and perhaps the fear of the unknown. Should any automaker dare to take the plunge, the technology will not be lacking.
Statistical Signal Processing – Automotive Radar (Praktische Übung im Labor)
We offer the Lab Course “Statistical Signal Processing - Automotive Radar” (PÜL) for master students.
The task is to apply methods from statistical signal processing to radar signals in order to estimate the distances, the velocities as well as the angles of surrounding objects. Thereby you will create a complete radar signal processing chain, which could be used in automobiles.
Modern automobiles are already equipped with radar systems. Thereby comfort functions like for example Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) can be offered. ACC refers to a system, which adjusts the own speed accordingly to the preceding cars. The radar systems are also used as security systems, e.g. they warn the driver of critical situations.
The goal of this course is to solve a challenging practical task from statistical signal processing while working in a team of two or three students. You will acquire and apply methods to real problems, based on simulated and measured data. Finally the results will be documented in a report (in english or german) and presented in a correct and understandable way. The methods you learn are also used in many other fields, e.g. audio signal processing and image processing of medical data, like computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance tomography (MRT).
Dates, Registration
please use ILIAS for more information on the dates and the registration (you have to be logged in to ILIAS).
Contact
Dipl.-Phys. Kilian Rambach
Radar-On-A-Chip (ROACH)
 | Radar-On-A-Chip (ROACH) is a small, low cost, single chip automotive radar build on 65nm CMOS process for operating in the 76 - 77 GHz frequency band for both long range and short range automotive radar applications, such as Adaptive Cruise Control, Collision Mitigation, Blind Sport detections, Stop & Go Functions, etc., with a maximum detection range around 200 meters. It is a highly integrated transceiver containing multiple transmit and receive chains operating in an array processing mode and supporting fully digital waveform generation and receive signal processing. The system employes real-time adaptive waveform scheduling and adaptive antenna array processing, so as to adapt to different environments and applications. |
An overview of ROACH is available here.
Collaboration
NICTA in partnership with the University of Melbourne, and supported by the Victorian Government, IBM, Cadence, and GM Holden, has established an experienced highly focused commercialisation orientated R&D team with skills in CMOS RF design, signal processing, antenna systems and radar technology, to develop ROACH sample prototype by mid of 2013.
Automotive Safety Development using radar spectrum
The European Union has cleared the way 
forward for expansion of important automotive safety techniques, by approving further use of automotive 24 GHz Ultra-Wide Band radar technology.
forward for expansion of important automotive safety techniques, by approving further use of automotive 24 GHz Ultra-Wide Band radar technology.
This decision was published in the Official Journal on July 30 after being approved at a meeting of the EU Radio Spectrum Committee in Brussels, on July 6-7. The EU had first approved the use of this technology in a decision taken in 2005. That decision was scheduled to expire in 2013, however, which would have left industry without suitable tools to provide for a range of advanced systems, such as automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring and pre-crash measures, such as automatic seat belt tensioners.
The new decision permits use of radar frequencies in the 24 Gigahertz range until 2018, with a phase out for existing car lines until 2022. All cars equipped with the radar by that date can stay on the market.
The automotive consortium SARA (Strategic Automotive Radar Frequency Allocation group) was the main proponent of the change. In an August 1 press release, the group said “this EU action resolved numerous technical details related to the use of radar frequencies, based on regulations that avoid interference from the radar to other spectrum users.” Dr. Gerhard Rollmann, chairman of SARA, said ”these technical issues were very controversial at the beginning due to interference issues. After over three years of debate we were able to resolve problems raised by other administrations and continue the use of this important technology.“
Studies by SARA member Mercedes-Benz have shown that 20 percent of rear-end collisions in Germany could be prevented using radar-based Brake Assist systems and accident severity could be reduced in a further 25 percent of collisions. The safety benefit was demonstrated in an analysis of the repair part statistics. Radar technology also is used to monitor driver blind spots. In 2010, Mercedes-Benz received the prestigious “Gelber Engel” (“Yellow Angel”) award for this application from the German automotive association ADAC. In its July 29 press release on the new decision, the Commission said “Widespread fitting of short range radar systems in cars could significantly enhance road safety for all road users and pedestrians."
Hogan Lovells worked closely with SARA to achieve both the 2005 decision and this latest amendment.
Distance Sensors - RADAR
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http://www.analog.com/en/press-release/5_25_11_Advanced_Automotive_Radar/press.html
http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/sensors-and-wireless-control/radar-solutions-in-automotive/channel.html?channel=db3a30431ddc9372011e213568da414b
http://www.nicta.com.au/research/projects/radar-on-a-chip_roach
http://www.eccosorb.com.hk/?q=industries-served/automotive
http://www.findmems.com/uncategorized/freescale-automotive-radar-millimeter-wave-technology
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/analog-products/4216267/AFE-for-auto-radar-provides-signal-path--6-channel-mux--PGA--LNA--filter--and-14-bit--80-MapsADC/
http://www.hlspectrumreview.com/2011/08/articles/short-range-and-unlicensed-devices/automotive-safety-development-using-radar-spectrum/
http://www.iss.uni-stuttgart.de/lehre/masterLabRadar/index.html
http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/advanced-cars/longdistance-car-radar/0#
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=AUTRMWT
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