NXP invests in Zendar’s high-resolution radar

NXP Semiconductors N.V. has announced that it is investing in Zendar Inc., a software start-up focused on autonomous vehicle systems with high-resolution radar. The investment includes a collaboration to develop and advance high-resolution radar systems for autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). NXP did not disclose the financial investment.

The investment supports the company’s leadership in the automotive radar market and strengthens the ecosystem, while marking the next step in improved road safety, NXP said. It also will result in simplified system solutions with lower complexity and a smaller radar footprint for automotive OEMs.

(Source: NXP Semiconductors)

NXP brings a scalable suite of radar sensor solutions that covers a range of automotive use cases and architectures, including corner radar to high-resolution 4D imaging radar. The S32R platform provides a common architecture for software reuse, a hardware security engine (HSE), over-the-air (OTA) update support and compliance with the newest cybersecurity standards. The latest addition to the portfolio is the industry-first 28-nm RFCMOS radar one-chip IC family SAF85xx for next-generation New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) applications.

Complementing NXP’s radar portfolio is Zendar’s Distributed Aperture Radar (DAR) technology that enables a simplified system solution approach, eliminating the need for thousands of antenna channels. “It coherently fuses information from multiple radar sensors on a vehicle to create a larger effective antenna that achieves unprecedented sensing resolution,” NXP said.

“The Zendar technology synchronizes multiple physically separated standard sensors and fuses their data to form a virtual aperture that is larger than that of the individual sensors. Since sensor resolution is proportional to aperture (or in simplified terms, antenna size) the resolution of the systems of synchronized sensor is improved versus the individual sensors,” NXP further explained.

The DAR technology increases the radar aperture, which improves the angular resolution. It is reported to enable high-angular resolution below 0.5 degrees, offering LiDAR-like performance for precise mapping of the environment, compared with conventional radar sensors that operate between two and four degrees.

For 4D radar, if the individual sensors provide 4D capability, then the system of synchronized sensors will also have 4D capability.

DAR also offers the potential to enhance the resolution through flexible mounting techniques, NXP said.

The radar solutions will be based on NXP’s S32R radar processor platform and RFCMOS SAF8x one-chip SoCs. Application development can start immediately, NXP said. The DAR solution was showcased at NXP Tech Days Detroit, November 7 – 8.