'Radar on Chip for Cars', a co-operated project of German automotive companies

The big names in automotive industry head-quartered in Germany such as BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH, Continental AG, Daimler AG and Robert Bosch GmbH are joining hands with automobile semiconductor specialist Infineon Technologies AG to research on crash-proof driver-assistance technologies by developing semiconductor devices and solutions. The project named "Radar on Chip for Cars" (RoCC) is working on developing highly reliable radar systems for all vehicle classes.

With a funds allocation of 17 million Euros, RoCC is supported by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which has granted Euro 8.3 million.

The radar sensor systems work in the very high microwave frequency range of 76 GHz to 81 GHz for both long-range systems (covering distances of up to 250 meters) and short-range systems (covering distances between five centimeters and 20 meters).

Since it's more related to semiconductors, Infineon Technologies is the project coordinator. The German academia is also involved in this project. The academia members include German universities in Bochum, Bremen, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Ulm, the Technical University in Munich and the University of Applied Sciences in Ulm.

A previous project, KOKON (vehicle high-frequency electronics), which was also supported by the BMBF, laid the foundations for automotive radar sensor technology and provides a technological head start of at least two years for Germany. Results from the KOKON project led to the development and market introduction of the first silicon germanium (SiGe)-based radar chip family for 77 GHz by Infineon (RASIC) and its use in the world's first silicon-based electronics solution for an automotive 77-GHz radar system by Bosch (LRR3). Using Infineon's SiGe chips, Continental also developed the first demonstrator of a short-range radar system at 79 GHz.

Short-range automotive radar sensors in use today use ultra-wide band technology at 24 GHz. This frequency, however, is licensed in Europe only up until the year 2013. The RoCC project aims to convert the system to the frequency range already released by the European Union of 79 GHz, and deliver systems that use these higher-frequency sensors at a cost that does not exceed today's 24-GHz systems. This presents a significant challenge to semiconductor technology, sensor design technology and in-vehicle integration that can only be tackled by a joint research project involving some of the most important companies in the automotive industry and their suppliers.

The green technologies and advanced safety features in cars are the result of infiltration of electronics and semiconductors into cars.