Future Trends in Automotive Radar / Imaging Radar

There is a growing interest of car manufacturers in sensors monitoring the car´s surrounding area in order to improve safety systems from mere crash survival to crash prediction or prevention by early detection of hazardous situations. Therefore radar sensors have been intensively investigated for many years. A large variety of radar based vehicular sensors have been developed. Narrow-beam radars are tested for intelligent cruise control (ICC), collision or obstacle warning, other sensors are used for stop&go operation, as lane change aid, for side or rear impact warning. Though first radar sensors for ICC operation are moving into the pre-production phase, further improvement in low-cost high-volume manufacturing is essential Next generations of automotive radar sensors will take advantage of increased signal processing power, progress in semiconductor technology, and improved packaging and assembly techniques. Future radar sensors will comprise electronically scanned beams allowing for better resolution with a high image update rate. Fusion of radar with other on board sensors (e.g. video) will further improve the performance of car safety systems, leading to intelligent vehicles in future.