NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced an extension of its automotive radar one-chip family. The new SAF86xx monolithically integrates a high-performance radar transceiver, a multi-core radar processor, and a MACsec hardware engine for state-of-the-art secure data communication over Automotive Ethernet. Combined with NXP’s S32 high-performance processors, vehicle network connectivity, and power management, the full system solution paves the way for advanced, software-defined radar.
The highly integrated radar SoC (System-on-Chip) is intended for streaming rich low-level radar sensor data at up to 1 Gbit/s. It helps carmakers optimize next-generation ADAS partitioning for software-defined vehicles while providing a smooth transition to new architectures. Additionally, OEMs will be able to easily introduce new software-defined radar features during the lifetime of the vehicle through Over-the-Air (OTA) updates.
It also shares a common architecture with the SAF85xx introduced last year and leverages 28 nm RFCMOS performance for significantly improved radar sensor capabilities, compared to prior-generation 40 nm or 45 nm products. It enables Tier-1 suppliers to build more compact and power-efficient radar sensors. Drivers and other road users will benefit from extended detection range beyond 300 m, along with more reliable detection of small objects like curb stones as well as vulnerable road users including cyclists and pedestrians.
The new radar one-chip supports NCAP safety functions including emergency braking and blind-spot detection. It also supports advanced ADAS and autonomous driving applications, including advanced comfort features for SAE levels 2+ and 3 such as traffic jam assist, highway pilot and park assist, front and rear cross-traffic alerts, as well as lateral and rear collision avoidance.
The comprehensive SAF8xxx family featuring the new SAF86xx and SAF85xx can be tailored for individual OEM use cases. It supports a range of sensor outputs, including object, point cloud-, or range-FFT-level data for smart sensors in today’s architectures and streaming sensors in future distributed architectures.
Extending NXP’s 3rd generation RFCMOS radar platform: Built on the proven RFCMOS automotive radar expertise of NXP, which was the first to ramp to high volume series production and has already shipped tens of millions of units; The highly integrated 76 to 81 GHz SAF86xx radar SoC is optimized for streaming sensors and include a Gigabit Ethernet interface and enhanced MACsec security; The SAF86xx is developed in accordance to ISO 26262 Safety Element out of Context (SEooC) methodology supporting ASIL Level B, in accordance to ISO/SAE 21434 (as a component-out-of-context) and meets the latest security requirements through its HSE security engine;
The SAF86xx radar SoC family is sampling now for alpha customers.