On March 14th, Appliance&electronics World Expo (AWE) officially kicked off at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. Calterah presented a full portfolio of 60 GHz mmWave radar SoCs and unveiled its latest Indoor Human Point Cloud SDK solution at 3E81 W3.

Calterah’s exhibits include its 60 GHz fully integrated mmWave radar SoC series using CMOS process, namely the 4T4R Rhine SoCs with standard package and antenna-in-package (AiP) and 2T2R Rhine-Mini SoC AiP chips. These SoC products operate in  frequency range of 59 GHz -64 GHz, supporting a maximum sweep bandwidth of 4G and a sampling rate of up to 25 MS/s, as well as the down-sampling function. The software Calterah unveiled is its latest Indoor Human Point Cloud SDK, which improves the reliability and real-time functioning of signal processing algorithm in SoCs for indoor applications, and solves the pain points of mmWave radar for indoor applications.

Calterah Latest Indoor Human Point Cloud SDK

Calterah's new indoor SDK solution integrates its latest indoor human body point cloud sensing application component, which output rich and high-quality point cloud data with strong cohesion and powerful sensing capabilities, for both moving and stationary human targets. These advantages grant Calterah's mmWave radar SoCs greater competitive edges as their applications expand from the automotive industry to industrial fields.

"Our new solution helps customers solve problems they couldn’t solve before, through the point cloud technology." Wu Xiang, Director of Ecosystem Development from Calterah said. For example, in indoor people sensing scenarios, for traditional mmWave radar to distinguish whether a person changes from an active state to a stationary state, or simply being obscured by objects, it largely depended on upper-level application. Now, the point cloud output from Calterah's indoor human point cloud SDK can show the actual scenes. In addition, the newly released SDK supports more flexible configurations of mmWave generation to meet the needs of more application scenarios, has lower power consumption and higher usability, which can facilitate customers to achieve upper-level applications.

Safer Indoor Detection Empowered by mmWave

Take elderly care products for an example, which gain most attention in the smart home industry. In indoor fall detection scenario, mmWave radar is superior to traditional camera sensors and wearable detection devices. In the detection area, radar recognizes the position, action trajectory and even gestures of humans, but it will not collect private information such as human faces and body contours so it can be installed in private spaces such as toilets, bathrooms and bedrooms without privacy concerns. What’s more, serving as a technological solution with great detection performance and privacy protection, it buys valuable time for rescue through timely alarms in case when an elderly falls.

As the public awareness of security and privacy requirements heightens, traditional security devices based on optical and infrared technologies no longer suffice for certain emerging security markets. In indoor environments such as hotel rooms, bathrooms, and changing rooms, mmWave radar SoC solutions perfectly avoids personal privacy risks. Calterah products are expected to play a significant role in indoor security for it can help to determine the presence of suspicious behaviors or potential security risks, thereby improving efficiency and accuracy.

"Traditional radar products, especially for indoor applications, had relatively sparse point clouds. Calterah's solution supports detection of both moving and stationary humans, including their presence, position and even gestures, thanks to the point clouds with greater density and cohesion. Based on this, more applications for automatic control in indoor scenarios can be developed." Wu Xiang said.

From a technical point of view, there are many factors affecting point cloud imaging of mmWave radar. For example, the signal interference problem needs to be solved through long-term experience accumulation and algorithm development, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) performance directly affects the quality and accuracy of point clouds, and signal processing algorithms also affect the effects of point cloud imaging. Wu said that these problems have been solved in Calterah SoC chips, the latest SDK implements a new  signal processing method, "the previous signal processing methods for vehicle radar are not suitable for indoor radar. And the new method we adopt can output point clouds with greater density and cohesion, hence improving the sensing of mmWave radar".

In ADAS applications, at nights or with hostile weather, the fusion of mmWave radar and camera can generate multi-dimensional data to achieve better detection and ensure vehicle safety. In 2023, Calterah's accumulated mmWave radar IC shipments reached 7 million units and empowered more than 150 plus models, becoming a leading enterprise in mmWave radar chips, with target applications extending from automotive radar to indoor sensors.

Going forward, Calterah hopes that its products can not only facilitate intelligent mobility, but also empower everyone's daily life, truly realizing the mission of "Make Millimeter-Wave Serve Everyone". In June 2024, Calterah will hold its Calterah Day event, where the future roadmap of industrial mmWave radar grade SoC chips will be revealed. Stay tuned and let us expand together the smart indoor applications enabled by mmWave radar.