Automotive radar SoC features high integration

NXP Semiconductors has claimed an industry-first 28-nm RFCMOS radar one-chip IC family for next-generation advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) systems. The SAF85xx automotive radar SoC family combines NXP’s high-performance radar sensing and processing technologies in a single device.

The radar one-chip IC family offers tier ones and OEMs new flexibility in addressing short, medium and long-range radar applications to meet NCAP safety requirements, said NXP.

The SAF85xx automotive radar SoC family is comprised of high-performance radar transceivers integrated with multi-core radar processors, built on NXP’s S32R radar compute platform. The fully integrated RFCMOS chip includes four transmitters, four receivers, ADC conversion, a phase rotator, a low-phase-noise VCO, a SPT radar accelerator, a BBE32 Vector DSP, Arm Cortex – A53 and Arm Cortex – M7 cores and 4-MB SRAM as well as Gigabit Ethernet and CAN-FD interfaces. The device operates from 76 GHz to 81 GHz, covering the full automotive radar frequency band.

SAF85xx block diagram (Source: NXP Semiconductors)

The SAF85xx offers twice the RF performance and delivers faster radar signal processing by up to 40%, compared to NXP’s previous generation, according to the company.

(Source: NXP Semiconductors)

The one-chip family can be used for 4D sensing in corner and front radar, making it suitable for ADAS applications, such as automated emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert and automated parking. It 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.

Together with NXP’s power management and connectivity solutions, the system solution addresses a variety of OEM requirements, including expanding NCAP safety requirements, said NXP. In addition, developers can leverage the S32R family’s scalability and its software and hardware design reuse benefits.

The SAF85xx one-chip family, available in a FC-CSP package (10.6 × 11.3 mm) is sampling now for alpha customers. The small form-factor enables radar sensor modules that are up to 30 percent smaller, according to NXP. The company showcased the new chip at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023.