ADAS Going Mainstream One Chip at a Time

Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) are an essential element in the vision of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, and they are becoming available today. The ADAS automotive technology raises driving safety by detecting obstacles around the vehicle such as other vehicles and pedestrians, as well as traffic signs and lane markings to automatically operate brakes or control speed and following distance.

(Image: CiA)

That makes ADAS a key highlight of the connected car movement. ADAS makes proactive use of the radar and camera technologies to improve safety and help avoid accidents. A number of chipmakers have recently unveiled ADAS components for both camera- and sensor-centric car safety features. Take STMicroelectronics’ imaging vision processor, EyeQ3, which it has jointly developed with Mobileye, a company that produces vision-based ADAS products for collision prevention and mitigation.

The EyeQ3 processor enables vision-based detection of pedestrians, vehicles, signs, and lane markings. ST demonstrated the EyeQ3 vision processor for ADAS applications at the 7th International Automotive Electronics Technology Expo in Tokyo, Japan last month. At the show, ST also demonstrated transceiver ICs for radars that emit millimeter waves to measure distance and the direction of obstacles around the vehicle.

STMicro’s vision processor for ADAS

Earlier, at the 2015 CES, NXP Semiconductors has demonstrated a fully integrated 77-GHz radar front-end IC based on RFCMOS technology. According to the company spokesman, it’s a complete radar system that, when used in combination with a back-end DSP or MCU, creates a compact two-chip solution.

24-GHz Radar Sensor

Infineon Technologies AG is also upping the ante on the ADAS front by integrating separate RF components for a radar sensor into a single transceiver that it calls microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC). Infineon has joined hands with the German automotive supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. to develop a sensor module that monitors the blind spot in the car’s rear section.

Infineon’s 24-GHz automotive radar system

Hella develops and manufactures components and systems for the automobile industry and has one of the largest retail organizations for vehicle parts, accessories and diagnostics in Europe. Moreover, it produces complete vehicle modules, air-conditioning and on-board network systems in collaborations with chipmakers like Infineon.

The driver assistance system that Hella has produced detects moving objects even in poor weather and warns of vehicles coming from behind while changing lanes and overtaking other vehicles. Hella’s 24-GHz radar sensor system for blind spot detection uses Infineon’s MMICs, fully integrated transceivers that contain all high-frequency components, like oscillators, transmission amplifiers and reception branches with low-noise amplifiers and I/Q mixers.

ADAS products for blind spot detection are gradually making headway in new vehicles. According to a Strategy Analytics study published in 2013, by the year 2020, the number of worldwide installed, radar-supported driver assistance systems is to rise from about 14 million to more than 40 million.

Majeed Ahmad is author of books Smartphone: Mobile Revolution at the Crossroads of Communications, Computing and Consumer Electronicsand The Next Web of 50 Billion Devices: Mobile Internet’s Past, Present and Future.