TECH UPDATE
Imaging Radars: All Weather Reliable Sensors for Assisted & Autonomous Tech
Figure 1: Imaging Radar Solution Board with Steradian RFIC
like dividers or shoulder fencing, an Imaging Radar will do much be er.
Rakesh Kumar Founding Director Steradian Semiconductors Rakesh Kumar has experience in developing complete solu on including Firmware & Systems. Rakesh led the WLAN RF for 2 genera ons in TI. He has co-authored 2 IEEE papers and holds 8 issued US patents.
What is an Imaging Radar? The self-driving car industry is developing rapidly & there is an immense focus on the autonomous tech from many established as well from the new entrants. The search is on for a reliable sensor which can work in adverse weather condi ons (fog, rain & dust) and gives adequate naviga onal informa on on terrain and moving objects. Radar is the most reliable sensor in inclement weather as the Radar frequency spectrum is least affected by these weather condi ons. Radar has been used in Avia on & Military for many years, where limited numbers of objects were tracked. Present day Radars as used in Automo ve do not provide enough resolu on to define the shape/size of the object. That’s where the imaging radar helps bridge the gap. 4D imaging radar (which gives loca on, velocity, size & shape) with machine learning enables terrain mapping & object classifica on. If your goal is to detect a car in front of you (or driving towards you) and get its velocity, the present RADAR can be sufficient. However, if you are trying to determine the precise loca on of an item, generate a terrain map,
PG.24 | Smart Automo ve | May - Jun 2018
Sensors for Autonomous Driving There are various sensors used in Automobiles for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving. Table 1 is a comparison of various sensor used in Automo ve. From the table, it can be inferred that Radar & Camera complements each other and the combina on is capable of replacing every other sensor technology. There will be mul ple fusion (Radar plus Camera) sensors used in a car. Front looking imaging radar helps in naviga on through all weather condi ons. Corner & Side radar helps in lane change & blind spot detec on. These can be nonimaging (Object tracking) radars to lower the cost of the sensor. Steradian IC is cost op mized for both imaging & object tracking radar applica ons: this flexibility allows the same chip to cater all applica ons. Primary use of Radar Sensor: 1. Front Radar is the most cri cal and ge ng mandatory by ENCAP in Europe. This serves the important func on of Collision Detec on, Warning, Mi ga on and Avoidance. 2. Corner & Side Radars take care of
the driver by monitoring the threats moving along-side. They are used for blind spot monitoring / blind spot detec on, lane change assistance and lane departure warning system. This can be used for early deployment of airbags in an imminent collision. 3. Rear Radar: These are looking backwards for possible rear ending and Cross Traffic Alert to help you detect approaching vehicles while backing up.
Differentiation Steradian focus is in building a world class Imaging Radar System. If one were to develop imaging radar solu on with exis ng Radar ICs, the build cost will run into several hundreds of dollars, whereas with Steradian IC, the cost can be kept 3-4x mes lower to enable wider segment adap on. We at Steradian have developed world’s most compact 28nm Millimeter-wave Imaging Radar chip to maximize the pixels per square-mm. The IC developed at Steradian is op mized for Performance, Power & Cost for Imaging Radar. Our flexible solu on enables a very large number of antenna sensors which brings 4D imaging through Radar to a reality. On the imaging system side, Steradian has
Figure 2: Classical Radar & Imaging Radar Comparison
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