Metawave announced that it has successfully demonstrated SPEKTRA analog beamsteering radar. According to the company, SPEKTRA is an automotive radar that can clearly detect vehicles beyond 300 meters and pedestrians beyond 200 meters with the highest angular resolution.
At the heart of SPEKTRA are Metawave’s MARCONI 77GHz phase controllers and mmWave integrated circuits, which, when used with company’s proprietary calibration system, enable the transmit and receive beams to be precisely steered in steps of 0.1º in the range of ±22º.
SPEKTRA has high angular resolution that enables it to distinguish between objects right next to each other (such as a car and biker). Its narrow beams in the analog domain enable it to quickly detect objects in the vehicle’s field of view (FoV) with very high accuracy while avoiding interference.
Its focused beams and small cross-sections allow SPEKTRA to detect objects, such as pedestrians and hazardous road objects, at long ranges and in all weather conditions. Further, the narrow beam and high angular precision allows SPEKTRA to track cross-traffic, a difficult problem for traditional radar.
In the coming months, Metawave plans to launch AWARE™, the proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) platform that enables SPEKTRA to perform real-time object classification and labeling for more efficient and faster Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) processing. Because of its machine learning sensor fusion platform, AWARE enables SPEKTRA to deliver accuracy in storms, darkness, and dense fog, even as vehicles travel at highway speeds.
According to Metawave, it is the only automotive radar company to demonstrate a calibrated phased array and front-end solution using one single conventional Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar transceiver chip, enabling analog beamforming signals. Traditional radars use four or more transceiver chips for digital beamforming or they ‘flash’ a wide FoV, limiting range and preventing their ability to accurately distinguish between objects that are close in proximity.
The company is engaging with select customers to participate in the SPEKTRA proof-of-concept evaluation program, allowing automotive leaders to affordably test the next generation radar for highly automated and autonomous driving, while having access to Metawave experts and its state-of-the-art labs. By offering the flexibility to extract raw data from the radar sensor, customers can run their own algorithms and seamlessly process SPEKTRA data within their software stack.
SPEKTRA provides automakers with the ability to deliver ADAS and safety features, including left turn assist, blind spot monitoring, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, traffic jam pilot, highway pilot, automatic emergency braking, lane assist, etc.
Source: Press Release
