Core history - an overview of the development process of millimeter wave radar applications at home and abroad, excavating industry anecdotes, learning from the past and the present, and exploring the way of future development of the industry.
In the past month, at least 3 accidents related to autonomous driving have been reported: the ideal ONE rear-end construction vehicle, the Xiaopeng P7 rear-end fault vehicle, and another Xiaopeng P7 test drive rear-end social vehicle, which has repeatedly brought the safety of autonomous driving into the spotlight. In the first half of this year, Tesla, who had threatened to abandon millimeter-wave radar, was exposed to personally design a millimeter-wave radar, and the ultra-cost-effective millimeter-wave radar is the "just need" system in the field of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving, which has become a hot spot in the field of competition that cannot be moved.
Chinese companies that started late lagged behind large foreign manufacturers, but under the evolution of the industrial development situation and the application scope is more diversified, on-board millimeter wave has expanded from OEMs, Huawei and other manufacturers to master more diversified applications. The emergence of a single-chip millimeter-wave radar module has made millimeter-wave radar chip semiconductor companies promote the promotion of the entire industry chain, making the competitive landscape more changeable. This article will tell the history of the application process of millimeter wave radar technology products in China and the memorable history between various local factions.
Automotive intelligence triggers imagination Millimeter wave radar market is gradually hot
In fact, China's earliest wave of millimeter-wave radar technology was not used in the field of vehicles, but in the military field such as security radar and ship radar. Opportunities are always fleeting, around 2010, millimeter wave radar in the field of foreign commercial vehicles has been in full swing, Europe and the United States millimeter wave radar manufacturers Bosch, Delphi, Ottoliv, mainland and other shipments basically reached tens of millions. At this time, millimeter-wave radar has begun to be applied to the field of automotive ADAS and autonomous driving, and the fierce battle on the intelligent track of automobiles is in full swing.
China's automotive ADAS enlightenment was in 2015, when Baidu first released a driverless car, resulting in a big shock in the Internet-linked automotive circle, and ADAS entered the public eye with a high profile. In 2018, China for the first time included FDW, AEB and other active safety systems in C-NCAP, driven by the demand for active safety in China's large car market, the domestic application of vehicle millimeter wave thunder has been greatly driven and shown rapid growth.
Pictured: Baidu's sixth-generation mass-produced unmanned vehicle Apollo RT6 debuted at the 2022 Baidu World Congress
In 2022, the milestones in China's autonomous driving field have been continuously refreshed, and various relevant policies and management regulations have been introduced, providing an internationally leading policy environment for commercialization and large-scale expansion. According to the monitoring data of The Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute, from January to May 2022, the front-loading of passenger cars in the Chinese market is equipped with 5.716 million millimeter-wave radar (extravehicle forward, lateral and backward), an increase of 17.74% year-on-year.
Due to technical barriers, foreign millimeter wave radar products occupy a dominant position in China, especially in the mainstream 77GHz product market of vehicle-mounted millimeter wave radar, and its core technology is mainly monopolized by four overseas giants of Weininger, Bosch, Continental, and Aptiv. Smart transportation is undoubtedly a super large market, China's rapidly growing car market is looked at by foreign manufacturers, and each company has launched a fierce plunder. Since 2018, NXP has successively launched various millimeter-wave radar solutions, and cooperated with Geely Automobile in the field of multi-radar system ADAS and autonomous driving, but due to the high price of NXP's products, it has not been widely adopted in China; Bosch's millimeter-wave radar has developed to the fifth generation, but it maintains a consistently mysterious tone, and the industry speculates that 4D radar has been developed, but there are significant shortcomings of too high power consumption; Infineon, which is limited by the Bosch Alliance, has limited promotion in China; In contrast to the above, Texas Instruments continues to support and promote, and has opened up the market in China with a high cost performance.
Opportunities are fleeting The homeland has gone from a scuffle to a distance
The gap between companies with domestic vehicle-mounted millimeter-wave radar has gradually widened from the initial scuffle to the present. In recent years, the rapid rise of China's intelligent electric vehicle market has provided opportunities for domestic industrial chains and suppliers to break through, but the landing of new millimeter-wave radar products is far behind that of automobiles. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently about 20 domestic millimeter wave radar start-ups, but there are not many enterprises that have mass production capabilities, can ensure product cost performance, and can provide late-stage services, coupled with insufficient preparation of domestic millimeter wave technology and radar system talents, a serious lack of personnel at various levels, and related ADAS startups themselves to do millimeter wave radar is not the best choice. Nowadays, there are still great differences between the start-ups founded by the entrepreneurial school, the returnee school, the academic school and the industrial transformation school and the business unit of the local car Tier1, which also creates a different development future between them.
The evolution from ADAS to high-level autonomous driving has promoted the growth of the millimeter wave imaging radar market, and a small number of domestic companies have made breakthroughs in the field of 77GHz millimeter wave radar, and companies with technology have quickly landed in mass production. In fact, before 2016, there were only four or five manufacturers in the world that could provide 77GHz radar chips on a large scale, and the progress of domestic companies in this field has been called catching up. For example, Chuhang Technology, which was formed by the German returnee team, launched a variety of vehicle specification-level products such as 77GHz angle radar, commercial vehicle blind spot detection system, 77GHz forward radar, 60GHz vital sign detection radar and 4D point cloud imaging radar, achieving double mass production in the field of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. In addition, the domestic radar company Yilaida took the lead in realizing the batch 77GHz vehicle radar frontal installation in 2018, and relied on radar products to obtain profits.
Figure: Domestic layout of 77GHz millimeter wave radar
At present, the suppliers of long-range millimeter wave radar are mainly international first-class suppliers, and manufacturers in Taiwan and mainland China are mostly in the verification and research and development stage; In the part of short-range millimeter wave radar, Taiwan factories including Mingtai, QiQi, Weishengke and Huanlongke have launched related products, and Chinese manufacturers including Desay SV, Chuhang Technology, Huayu Automobile, Shanghai Silicon Jiewei, Gatland Microelectronics, Xiamen Yixing, Hangzhou Shore, Hunan Nalei, Sensec, Anzhijie, Dalian Dashiping and Hangzhou Zhibo have also entered the stage of productization.
More diversified millimeter wave radar has entered the single-chip era
After solving the bottleneck of volume and cost with the help of process innovation, millimeter-wave radar has entered a broader application world through integration with image sensors and so on. European and American millimeter wave radar application road is relatively simple, the road target focuses on the field of vehicles, with the improvement and development of Automation demand in China's industrial and consumer fields, millimeter wave radar in China's smart city, building automation, health monitoring and other industries have been developed. Coupled with the mass production of Semiconductor's CMOS-based single-chip solutions, the use of millimeter-wave radar in the automotive and industrial sectors has accelerated.
In the field of smart communities, the Hong Kong Science Park established a smart people flow management system in 2018 using built-in Infineon LED drivers, 24GHz millimeter wave radar and smart indoor lighting with microcontrollers; In addition, real-time monitoring of traffic flow and lighting status can also be carried out to improve the efficiency of traffic management and preventive maintenance of street lights. In the areas of health monitoring and wear, Infineon has also developed gesture recognition 60 GHz radars for wearable devices, the Internet of Things and automotive applications. Texas Instruments' 60Ghz millimeter-wave radar products are used in industrial frequency bands as well as automotive cabin interior detection applications, such as cockpit member detection and driver sign detection.
Taking the domestic enterprise Gatland Microelectronics as an example, it is the first in the industry to publicly supply CMOS-77GHz radar chips, and its AiP-form millimeter-wave radar chip products Alps and Rhine series are applied outside the front of the car, and can also be used for live detection in the cabin to avoid accidents caused by people or pets being locked by mistake.
As a mature technology originating in the military field, China's innovation ability is not lost to foreign manufacturers, but to achieve mass production, its applicability, reliability, consistency and cost control must be continuously upgraded in the supplier system of the main engine factory. In addition, the early radar products in the world have been significantly unsatisfactory to Chinese applications, and the application of diversification, cost-effectiveness, heavy service or into the breakthrough of domestic millimeter wave radar.
(Proofreader/Li Mei)