Freescale samples 77GHz radar chipsets

"77 GHz is likely to be the EU's radar band of choice in 2013, with China and the US expected to follow," said Demetre Kondylis, general manager of Freescale's Sensor and Actuator Solutions Division. "Advanced SiGe mixed signal technology is a critical differentiator for our radar business. It gives us a distinctive advantage to offer our customers exceptional product functionality and capability, such as various modulation schemes in a standalone mode of operation, high speed frequency ramp up, competitive power consumption and best in class reliability." Freescale's radar system is based on multichannel receivers and transmitters that allow high level integration and complex signal generation and processing. A typical Freescale rf front end solution consists of a transmitter chip with an integrated PLL, power amplifier and local oscillator (LO) output and an on chip ramp generator, along with one or several multichannel receivers that provide the low noise down conversion of the radar signals into the IF domain. The chips are manufactured in Freescale's 0.18µm bicmos technology, which allows the combination of high speed bipolar devices with the high integration level of cmos. Xtrinsic radar chipsets consist of a transmitter and a multichannel receiver with an integrated phase locked loop. 77GHz technology allows a device to switch between long and short range functionality by issuing an spi command. This enables the same radar module to be used for multiple safety systems.