1122 Mw Renesas Raa270205 Radar Transceivers Promo 637e4eed32085

Automotive Radar Transceivers Sport High Accuracy and Low Power Consumption

Nov. 23, 2022

Renesas’s RAA270205, a 4x4-channel, 76- to 81-GHz radar transceiver, leverages Steradian technology to build out its ADAS sensor-fusion portfolio.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

The Overview

Renesas Electronics enters the automotive radar market with its new RAA270205 high-definition radar transceiver, a 4x4-channel, 76- to 81-GHz transceiver. The device joins the company’s growing sensor-fusion portfolio, which combines radar, vision systems, and other sensing modalities.

Who Needs It & Why?

The new transceiver MMIC is especially suited for imaging radar, long-range forward-looking radar, and 4D radar. However, it also can be used for corner and central-processing radar architectures, the so-called “satellite” automotive radar systems. In such use cases, the device meets the demanding requirements of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and Level 3 and higher autonomous-driving applications.

Under the Hood

Designed in cooperation with Steradian Semiconductors, which Renesas acquired earlier this year, the RAA270205 is equipped with four transmit and four receive channels, supporting up to 16 multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) channels. It can be cascaded to enable higher channel counts and better radar resolution.

The RAA270205 features best-in-class accuracy with up to 5 GHz of bandwidth, and a 112.5-Msample/s analog-to-digital converter (ADC) sampling rate that's said to be nearly 3X faster than competing devices. Power consumption of 1.2 W is 50% lower than comparable transceivers and it delivers a noise figure of 9 dB, which is 3 dB less than other radar transceivers. Its superior chirp rate of up to 300 MHz/µs improves radar resolution and object detection.

Renesas has plans to combine the RAA270205 transceiver with other compatible devices from its portfolio to support automotive radar systems. These so-called “winning combinations” comprise technically vetted system architectures from mutually compatible devices that work together seamlessly to bring an optimized, low-risk design for faster time-to-market.

The RAA270205 will be available in 1Q/2023 in sample quantities, with commercial production planned for 2024. The transceiver is available in a small, easy-to-integrate embedded wafer-level ball-grid array (eWLB) package, measuring only 7.6 × 5.6 mm. It will be fully compliant with automotive industry requirements such as IATF 16949, AEC-Q100 Grade 2, and ASIL B.

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.