Advanced radar one-chip family for ADAS and autonomous driving systems

NXP Semiconductors has released a new industry-first 28nm RFCMOS radar one-chip IC family for next-generation ADAS and autonomous driving systems. The new SAF85xx one-chip family integrates the company's high-performance radar sensing and processing technologies into a single device, providing tier ones and OEMs new flexibility in managing short, medium and long-range radar applications to serve ever more demanding NCAP safety necessities. The launch of the one-chip radar family has added to its radar portfolio, built on over 15 years of technology leadership and created to surround drivers in a cocoon of safety to decrease accidents. DENSO Corporation, which works at the forefront of radar technology, has welcomed the company's latest innovation as its lead customer.

"This advanced radar sensing technology plays an essential part in accelerating the development of next-generation ADAS," said Mr Hiroshi Kondo, head of Safety Systems Business Unit at DENSO Corporation. "We know DENSO will extend its leadership position in ADAS by leveraging NXP's compact high-performance SAF85xx radar SoC."

The company's new family of automotive radar SoCs includes high-performance radar transceivers combined with multi-core radar processors built on its S32R radar compute platform. The new family provides twice the RF performance and speeds up radar signal processing by up to 40% compared to its previous generation. The one-chip family facilitates 4D sensing for corner and front radar, serving critical safety ADAS applications, such as adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert and automated parking. OEMs will profit from the increased flexibility it provides in meeting the growing NCAP safety needs and the proliferation of radar sensors, which some analyst calculates the project will range to up to five or more per car.

When combined with the company's power management and connectivity solutions, the system solution flexibly addresses a wide variety of today's and tomorrow's OEM needs. Developers can take advantage of the S32R family's seamless performance scalability and its software and hardware design reuse benefits.

"Our new radar one-chip family enables the reliable long-range detection of objects and separation of small objects next to larger ones, like a fast-moving motorcycle next to cars and trucks on a busy multi-lane highway," said Torsten Lehmann, executive vice president, NXP Semiconductors. "Its small form factor allows our customers to build radar sensor modules that are up to 30% smaller, enabling global suppliers of ADAS systems, like DENSO, to expand the potential of radar safety through this powerful new technology."