Calterah’s short-range radar (SRR) reference design is developed based on Calterah’s AiP devices, which implements the cutting-edge antenna-in-package (AiP) technology and enables cost-efficient, low-power, compact and easy-to-use design. With breakthroughs in system design, object detection, 4D measurement, object recognition and cluster tracking, the reference design serves well active safety and auto driving and can be a guardian on your trip.

Specifications

Specifications of Calterah’s AiP-based SRR reference design are as follows:

Table 1. Specifications of SRR Reference Design

System Design

SRR Mode and uSRR Mode take turns when the radar device is working.

SRR Mode uses TX1, TX2 and TX3 for beamforming to enable a maximum detection range of 80 meters while decreasing the elevation FOV to weaken the impact of ground clutter.

uSRR Mode uses TX1 and TX2 for beamforming to get a virtual transmission antenna VTX0 and TX2 and TX3 to get another virtual transmission antenna VTX1. And then, by using TDM MIMO between VTX0 and VTX1, the azimuth and elevation FOV of an object can be obtained at the same time.

Figure 1. Antennas in SRR Mode

Figure 2. Antennas in uSRR Mode

Maximum Detection Range

The road test scenario and results are shown in the following figures.

The collection of red points indicates the track of the vehicle in 0° direction; the collections of blue points indicate the tracks of the vehicle in the direction of -30° and 30°, respectively; and the collections of green points indicate the tracks of the vehicle in the direction of -45° and 45°, respectively.

From these results, it is learnt that in SRR Mode, the maximum detection range of the radar device is 80 meters in the FOV of -45° to 45°,  while in uSRR Mode, the maximum detection range is 48 meters in the FOV of -45° to  45°.

Figure 3. Road Test Object & Environment

Figure 4. Maximum Detection Range in SRR Mode

Figure 5. Maximum Detection Range in uSRR Mode

4D Measurement

uSRR Mode enables 4-dimensional (horizontal range, vertical range, height and velocity) measurement of an object. In this mode, the radar device can not only measure the height of bridges, overpasses, billboards and ground clutter, but also obtain the point cloud data about the outlines of vehicles for further application-specific development.

The figures below show the detection output of an overpass and a container truck from the radar device in uSSR Mode.

Figure 6. Point Cloud Data of Overpass in uSRR Mode

Figure 7. Point Cloud Data of Container Truck in uSRR Mode

Object Recognition

Calterah’s SSR reference design integrates the feature of object recognition, able to effectively recognize ground clutter, vehicles of different sizes, overpasses and sidewalks based on the information of RCS, Doppler, height and size, preventing interference in subsequent applications.

The figures below show the distribution of ground clutter and statistical characteristics of the X-Y plot, Range-Velocity plot, Range-Z (height) plot and Range-Power plot, respectively.

Figure 8. Point Cloud Data of Container Truck in uSRR Mode

Cluster Tracking

The clustering and multi-object tracking feature of Calterah’s SSR reference design supports the clustering of up to 128 objects and steady tracking of up to 64 objects. Customers, depending on their actual needs, can choose the database for FCW (forward collision warning) feature or the one for backward BSD (blind spot detection) feature, the latter of which supports master-slave radar mode and RCTA (rear cross-traffic alert) features.