Infineon ships ten millionth 77GHz automotive radar chip

In a recent study, the market research firm IHS Technology declared Infineon the global market leader in 77GHz chips, which is the standard frequency range for radar applications such as adaptive cruise control and collision warning. The first 10m of these radar chips from Infineon were primarily built into premium and luxury vehicles over the past six years. Infineon anticipates increasing demand and expects that, within the next year, up to 10m radar chips will also be used in mid-sized and compact cars. This means that statistically one out of every twenty cars will be using a driver assistance system with a 77GHz radar chip from Infineon.

The market research firm Strategy Analytics also confirmed this trend towards safety systems in cars. They expect that in the next five years applications such as distance warning systems and automatic emergency braking will grow by more than 25% annually. This growth is in part attributable to the rating scheme from the independent organisation Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme), that reviews the safety of new vehicles sold in Europe. To achieve the highest rating of five stars a new car must have a radar-based driver assistance system. Strategy Analytics forecasts that of the 105m new vehicles expected to be built in 2020 more than 20m will use a radar-based distance warning system. That would mean that about 20% of all new vehicles worldwide would be equipped with such a system.

”Our chips make driver assistance systems increasingly accurate and more cost-effective,” said Jochen Hanebeck, President, Automotive Division, Infineon Technologies AG. ”Radar-based driver assistance systems using Infineon chips now are becoming the standard in mid-range and compact cars. They are an important growth market for Infineon. Our high system knowledge and close cooperation with leading system suppliers and car manufacturers around the world are key elements to our success,” says Hanebeck.

Even in poor visibility situations, radar chips in the 77GHz range make it possible for vehicles to ‘recognise’ other road users at a distance of up to 250m. This allows a car to indicate a hasardous traffic situation in time and brake automatically. If radar-based driver assistance systems continue to become widely adopted, then those dreaded collisions you get when stuck in a traffic jam - especially around vacation time - could well be a thing of the past.

In addition to 77GHz radar chips for active safety systems, Infineon also offers radar chips in the 24GHz frequency range for distances up to 100m. 24GHz radar chips are most often used to monitor the blind spot. With them, the radar system alerts drivers to vehicles behind them when passing or changing lanes. When parking, the radar detects cross-traffic in the rear and prevents collisions.

A vehicle driver assistance radar system sends out radio-frequency electromagnetic waves, which are reflected back by vehicles or other objects ahead. Radar chips of Infineon send and receive these high-frequency signals and pass them on to the radar Electronic Control Unit (ECU). The radar ECU then determines the distance of the car to other vehicles and their speed in order to warn the driver in good time and to initiate the braking maneuver in case of emergency.