At 10 am Beijing time on Dec. 20, the Calterah Day 2022 themed with Next Wave, first of its kind, was initiated where two new mmWave radar SoC families, Alps-Pro and Andes, were launched.

Alps-Pro

Alps-Pro is developed based on the mmWave radar SoC platform of Alps, featuring more powerful, more robust and more optimal. The new Alps-Pro device integrates a 4T4R transceiver capable of operation in 76–81 GHz band, high-speed ADCs, BBA (Baseband Accelerator) supporting the complete radar signal processing flow, a dual-core CPU, and cybersecurity engines. Also, the device supports CAN, CAN-FD, and 100 Mbps Ethernet interfaces and its typical power consumption is as low as 1.8 W at 50% duty cycle when 4 TXs and 4 RX are all on. 

Compared to Alps products, the newly-launched Alps-Pro product has several advantages:

• FMCW transceiver system
  
  • More accurate phase shifter; higher channel-to-channel isolation; greater RF link budget.
  • Reduced spur attenuation; CISPR 25 Class 5 for EMC; 100% faster functional safety mechanism detection.
• BBA
  • More efficient DDM flow; coherent CFAR; SVA supported.
  • Greater performance in interference detection and mitigation; bit-true simulator for each BBA engine.
• Digital circuitry
  
  • Memory size increased by 100%; single-core CPU upgraded to dual-core; interface throughput improved by 19 times

The Alps-Pro device, resembling the cost-efficient advantage of Alps, is the smallest among its likes on the market. Apart from it, the various debugging features, simpler CPU resource management, and ASPICE compliance of Alps-Pro offer greater ease of use and shorten time to market.  

Forward-looking radar based on Alp-Pro can have a maximum detection range of 240 m, with ±0.1° angular accuracy and 3° resolution. Unquestionably, the more powerful Alps-Pro can better meet the requirements of radar systems for L2+ intelligent.

Andes

The next-generation mmWave radar SoC product family of Andes that brings the frontier technology to the market, was also unveiled. Andes, unrivalled in every aspect, can realize 4D premium and imaging radar functions.

Key features

• 4T4R Radar SoC using 22 nm process
• Multi-core CPU with DSP and RSP
• Gigabit Ethernet with RGMII/SGMII
• Flexible cascading
• ASIL-B compliant & AEC-Q100 Grade 1

As a next-generation platform, Andes is most advanced in computation power, RF design, cascading functionality, debugging, and cybersecurity.

• Computation power: 4-core CPU offering over 2000 DMIPS; DSP operating at least 2X faster than products on the market; Calterah proprietary RSP for rapid radar signal processing.
• RF module: 7-bit transmission line-based phase rotator; flexible waveform generation supported; accurate digital compensation.
• Cascading functionality: C2C (Chip-to-Chip) interface; cascading using a flexible number of chips; AXI-based protocol facilitating software operation; distributed signal processing.
• Debugging: Interfaces including JTAG and Aurora; multiple data channels; analytic modules.
• Cybersecurity: Adaptation of “safety island” design; hardware accelerators supporting all crypto algorithms.

With the extraordinary computation power, Andes supports high-throughput data processing and advanced algorithms. Its flexible architecture can meet the requirements of different use scenarios and waveforms. The convenient debugging functions significantly facilitate development and the superior Hardware Security Module can well address the ever-growing need for cybersecurity.

At the product launch, Dr Chen Jiashu, CEO of Calterah, pointed out three directions towards which the automotive mmWave radar evolves: compact and low-power, economical, and 4D imaging. Calterah is proud to have the most comprehensive mmWave radar chip product portfolio and can offer, in sync with the three directions, the cutting-edge mmWave technologies to global users.

Calterah’s AiP products from the Alps family are preferred choices for small and low-power radar modules and perfect for emerging automotive in-cabin applications. For Alps-Pro, it targets L2+ intelligent radar with the cost-efficient advantage. Andes, however, is designed for 4D premium and imaging radar, contributing to L3+ auto driving.

Calterah Day 2022, the first of its kind, comprised a new product launch in the morning conducted via on-site presentation and livestreaming, attracting an audience of over 3000, and mmWave tech seminars in the afternoon where Calterah engineers elaborated on Alps-Pro regarding its whole-new algorithms, system design, SDK architecture, compilation and debugging, data collection, and HIL, in an effort to help customers gain a deeper understanding of Alps-Pro.

As of today, Calterah has served more than 400 customers, built a partnership with over 20 car OEMs, and enabled 70+ car models, with an accumulative shipment of over 3 million auto-grade chips. This year also witnesses the establishment of our first overseas site in Munich and hence we are able to better serve global customers and to get one step closer to the mission of “Make Millimeter-Wave Serve Everyone”.