Radar-on-a-chip devices could radically cut the cost of automotive radar systems so that they can be fitted as standard to mid-range cars by 2010.

A major driver for in-car radar systems is the European Union's safety campaign to improve road safety and decrease the number of traffic accidents by 50 per cent by 2010.

It is expected that long- and medium-range radar systems, covering distances between 20 and 200 metres to the front of a vehicle, will play an importent role by identifying obstacles and automobiles ahead, despite visibility. If a collision is anticipated, headrests and seatbelts are in position to help alleviate the impact in advance of the accident. A similar signal will also sent to the braking or airbag systems.

Market research firm Strategy Analytics predicted that from 2006 to 2011, the use of long range warning systems in cars could increase by more than 65 per cent annually, with demand reaching three million units in 2011, with 2.3 million of them using radar sensors.

"By 2014, 7 per cent of all new cars will include a distance warning system, primarily in Europe and in Japan," said the analyst. 

“Radar technology is the key to building innovative driver assistance systems to help avoid automobile accidents. For this very reason, Infineon has developed a highly integrated radar chip based on silicon germanium manufacturing technology that makes it possible to build simpler and more compact radar sensors," said Hans Adlkofer, v-p and general manager of Infineon Technologies’ Sense and Control business unit.

Infineon's RXN7740 is a front-end chip for the 76-77GHz frequency range which includes function blocks for the oscillator, the power amplifier and four mixers for multiple antennas. Cost and size reductions result from the integration of function which typically require additional components. 

The technology, developed with the aid of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the KOKON project, has been designed and qualified specifically for automotive use. It uses a silicon germanium (SiGe) process technology with a transit frequency of 200GHz

Initial samples of the highly integrated RXN7740 radar chips are now available, with production is expected to ramp-up in mid-2009.