NXP Semiconductors has invested in and will collaborate with Zendar – a software start-up supporting AV systems with high-resolution radar. The investment aims to accelerate and improve high-resolution radar solutions for AD systems and ADAS to complement NXP’s scalable radar portfolio.
Together, the companies will collaborate on enhanced high-resolution radar systems for automotive applications by leveraging Distributed Aperture Radar (DAR), a technology developed by Zendar that enables a simplified system solution approach. Through DAR, the resolution of high-performance radar systems can be enhanced while eliminating the need for thousands of antenna channels. It collects and combines information from multiple radar sensors on a vehicle to create a larger effective antenna that achieves heightened sensing resolution. DAR also enables high-angular resolution below 0.5 degrees, providing capabilities similar to a LiDAR that support precise mapping of the environment, and offers further potential to enhance resolution through flexible mounting techniques.
The jointly-developed radar solutions will be based on NXP’s S32R radar processor platform and RFCMOS SAF8x one-chip SoCs – both of which are tailored to cover a variety of vehicle architectures and help accelerate the transition toward distributed architectures. The companies expect that OEMs and suppliers will equally benefit from high resolution systems developed with simplified standard radars, with reduced thermal complexity, and a smaller radar footprint for flexible and more convenient mounting.
