With the rapid development of intelligent driving, vehicle perception systems require higher accuracy, resolution, and precision of mmWave radar sensors. Calterah’s Alps-Pro mmWave radar SoC can cover L2/L2+ ADAS applications. Recently, Calterah has introduced a high-performance corner radar solution based on the Alps-Pro SoC, which has served mainstream automotive Tier-1 suppliers in China, facilitating the development of intelligent driving perception.

Calterah’s Alps-Pro high-performance corner radar solution adopts the non-equally-spaced DDM-MIMO waveform design for long-range radar (LRR) and medium-range radar (MRR) modes, under which a sensor can detect multiple objects around the vehicle and obtain information such as their range, velocity, angle, etc.

Advantages of Calterah Alps-Pro High-Performance Corner Radar Solution

• Longer detection range (MRR: 100 m, LRR: 180 m), high range accuracy (MRR: ±0.05 m, LRR: ±0.1 m), high range resolution (MRR: 0.2 m, LRR: 0.4 m). Adopting a 45° beam-deflection antenna design, the solution supports long-distance detection of objects 180 m ahead in the same lane of a vehicle.

• Wide velocity range (-85–85 m/s), high velocity accuracy (±0.025 m/s), and high velocity resolution (MRR: 0.1 m/s, LRR: 0.14 m/s)

• Large FOV (azimuth: -75°–75°, elevation: -12°–12°) and high 2D angle measurement accuracy (azimuth: ±0.2°, elevation: ±0.5°)

• High azimuth resolution (4°) and more stable angle resolution performance

• High point cloud density enables more accurate scene representation.

In addition to better performance of the metrics mentioned, Calterah’s high-performance corner radar solution based on the Alps-Pro SoC also boasts other merits.

• Faster Operation Speed

The hardware-based complete DDM-MIMO signal processing flow operates at a faster speed, and it can easily achieve the 50 ms frame rate requirement while outputting 512 objects.

• Lower Signal Leakage

The comprehensive phase shifter calibration solution enables automatic calibration within one second, thus lowering the signal leakage level to less than -30 dB.

• More Diversified Interfaces

Alps-Pro supports an Ethernet interface to output more diversified target information, point cloud information, and other signal processing results required by domain controllers.

Meanwhile, Alps-Pro also integrates a Hardware Security Module (HSM) to meet increasing demands on cybersecurity.

Calterah’s Alps-Pro high-performance corner radar solution has MRR and LRR modes, which can enable various high-performance corner radar applications, including Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Lane Change Assist (LCA), Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA), etc.

As the new 4T4R 77 GHz radar SoC based on Calterah’s Alps platform, Alps-Pro (CAL77S344-AE) has more powerful transceiver, Baseband Accelerator (BBA), CPU, etc. Moreover, Alps-Pro is more robust since it can further reduce out-of-band spurs, improve interference detection, and support cybersecurity. Alps-Pro also has more optimal cost efficiency and its typical power consumption is as low as 1.5 W at a 50% duty cycle with 4 TRXs on. In addition, Alps-Pro’s various debugging features and its ASPICE-compliant SDK can simplify user development and shorten the time to market. 

Boasting a most comprehensive portfolio of mmWave radar chips in the industry, Calterah offers SoC products that can enable various automotive mmWave radar applications apart from corner radar, including forward-looking radar, imaging radar, in-cabin radar, side radar, etc. Regarding forward-looking radar, Calterah will release its reference solution based on in the 4^th quarter of 2023, continuing to further facilitate L2/L2+ intelligent driving.