ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — Texas Instruments, which entered the radar sensor market only four months ago, is late to a party that includes heavyweights NXP Semiconductors, Infineon Technologies and STMicroelectronics, but nonetheless exudes confidence in its ability to gain market share.
Last month, EE Times caught up with Sameer Wasson, general manager of radar & analytic processors at TI to get a progress report. While acknowledging that automotive is the biggest market for radar chips, he noted that he is actually more excited about potential applications for TI’s radar chips. “Drones, factory floors and building automation… you name it. There are so many places our chips can go,” he said.
TI professes to be all in with mmWave sensors, whose possible applications go well beyond Wasson’s list.
The decision to get into the radar sensor business is a calculated move based on TI’s internally developed technology. He said, “TI wouldn’t have gone into the market if they thought we wouldn’t dominate the market.”
Two factors favor TI radar chips, according to Wasson. First, TI has developed the smallest footprint CMOS sensor portfolio. Second, TI’s radar sensors offer “highly accurate stand-alone sensing with less than a 4-centimeter range resolution.” When it comes to precision, Wasson said, “Nobody comes close.”
Infineon and ST have been doing SiGe- or BiCMOS-based radar products. These are said to have performance advantages at higher frequencies, and come with higher temperature tolerance. But it was NXP who first opened the door to tiny radar chips operating at 77GHz by using CMOS process technology.
While NXP and TI have both developed CMOS-based radar sensors, TI has one-upped NXP in terms of integration, said Wasson. “We offer a fully integrated CMOS single-chip solution featuring a DSP and MCU, or a single-chip with just an MCU or DSP.” NXP’s single-chip 77 GHz radar transceiver comes with neither MCU nor DSP.
Sameer Wasson at VSI Labs' automotive event. TI's radar unit is being used by VSI Labs which is developing a highly automated vehicle on an Open Source Car Control-enabled Kia Soul. (Photo: EE Times)
Broad portfolio
TI’s broad portfolio of radar chips allows developers to choose just the right radar chip they need for their designs, according to TI, while cutting power consumption and board space by 50 percent.
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