NXP packages automotive radar in single chip
Claimed to be an industry-first, a family of 28nm RFCMOS radar one-chip ICs has been introduced by NXP for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving systems.
The SAF85xx family combines NXP’s radar sensing and processing technologies into a single device. They integrate four high-performance transmitters, four receivers, a multi-core radar processor with hardware accelerator, Gigabit Ethernet communication interface and memory into a single device. NXP said, the ICs offer Tier one companies and OEMs flexibility in addressing short, medium and long range radar applications for challenging NCAP safety requirements.
The SAF85xx family targets the Automotive Safety Integrity Level B (ASIL B) requirements, according to the ISO 26262 functional safety standard and the automotive cybersecurity standard ISO/SAE 21434 to meet the requirements of the automotive industry for safety and security.
The family of automotive radar SoCs is comprised of radar transceivers integrated with multi-core radar processors which are built on NXP’s S32R radar compute platform. The SAF85xx offers twice the RF performance and accelerates radar signal processing by up to 40 per cent, compared to NXP’s previous generation.
The one-chip family enables 4D sensing for corner and front radar, for ADAS applications such as automated emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert and automated parking.
The single chip radar ICs enable “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 per cent smaller,” he added, which is expected to expand the potential of radar safety.
The SAF85xx one-chip family is sampling now for alpha customers.
