SHANGHAI, July 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- At Calterah Day 2024 on June 6 in Shanghai, Calterah revealed its 2-chip cascading imaging radar solution using Andes SoCs, two 6T6R mm-wave radar SoC series—Kunlun-USRR and Lancang USRR, along with an innovative package technology—ROP^®. Calterah also invited experts in the mm-wave tech field and ecosystem partners to explore how mm-wave radar can leverage cutting-edge technologies to address swiftly changing demands for radar.

Surmounting "Andes" and Defining New Paradigm for R&D of Imaging Radar

At the event, Calterah unveiled a 2-chip cascading imaging radar solution using Andes SoCs, indicating the chip named after the largest mountain range in South America—Andes, will enter mass production soon.

Based on the 22 nm CMOS process, the Andes SoC integrates an RF module with industry-leading performances and boasts the unique architecture of a quad-core CPU with a DSP and a proprietary Radar Signal Processor (RSP), which offers ultra-strong computing power for exceptional and flexible signal processing.

Owing to the Flex-Cascading^® function of Andes, Calterah redefines the R&D paradigm of imaging radar. By cascading two Andes SoCs through Chip-to-Chip interfaces, customers can readily realize an imaging radar system, which scales up chip resources, simplifies the hardware architecture, optimizes the BOM, and allows software reuse.

Calterah 2-Chip Cascading Imaging Radar Solution supports up to 64 MIMO channels, provides a 320-meter maximum detection range with a 1.5° azimuth separation, a 3° elevation separation, and outputs 2048 point targets per frame. Calterah also demonstrated the field test results of the imaging radar solution, which highlighted its highly competitive detection capabilities in maximum detection range, separation of strong and weak targets in complex traffic scenarios, hidden target detection, and detection at intersections, on highways, etc. Calterah announced this solution would be brought to market very soon this June.

Scaling "Kunlun" and Pushing Frontiers of Vehicle Perception

Calterah Kunlun automotive mm-wave radar SoC platform came into being to primarily meet the differentiated requirements on radar put by emerging applications, such as automatic obstacle avoidance doors, passenger monitoring, and child presence detection, including lower power consumption, smaller size, and better angular and spatial resolution.

Calterah unveiled the 77 GHz Kunlun-USRR and 60 GHz Lancang-USRR SoC series, both developed on the Kunlun platform. USRR stands for Universal Short Range Radar, meaning these multi-channel SoCs are optimized and tailored to the needs of universal emerging radar applications.

Calterah Kunlun-USRR and Lancang-USRR SoCs have 6T6R, offering stronger angular performance. Each integrates a flexible and powerful RSP allowing customized signal processing flows. Different power modes ensure the ultra-low power consumption of short-range radar. Moreover, the antenna-in-package (AiP) version achieves a remarkably small package size of 13 mm × 16 mm, facilitating radar installation for emerging applications and expanding vehicle perception from ADAS to the interior and exterior of vehicles.

Samples of Calterah's Kunlun-USRR and Lancang-USRR SoCs are expected to be available in Q4, 2024.

ROP^®—Optimal Chip Solution for Waveguide Antenna Systems

Calterah also revealed a cutting-edge mm-wave package technology—Radiator on Package (ROP^®), which employs radiators to transmit signals to a waveguide antenna system and thus greatly reduces antenna feedline loss and improves channel isolation, better meeting the radar requirements of longer detection ranges and wider FOVs. Calterah ROP^® package technology will be applied in the Alps-Pro and Andes SoC series.

As of Q1 in 2024, Calterah's accumulative chip shipments have exceeded 8 million units, and counting. For 2024, Calterah expects to ship over 6 million chips. This significant growth will breathe new life into the global mm-wave radar chip market.