Automotive Millimeterwave Radar History and present Status

The possibility to apply millimeterwaves for various applications in the commercial arena has a long history, as the impressive advantages being offered by such systems have been known for more than 3 decades. Furthermore, the necessity of turning their attention away from the military sector towards commercial products has caused more and more companies to look into millimeterwave communications and automotive radar. Advantageously, this was accompanied by the advent of low-cost integration procedures, i.e. Hybrid- and Monolithic-Integration Techniques, respectively, as well as surpassing advances in the area digital signal processing. Thus millimeterwave systems have found an ever increasing interest, due to their specific advantages, as well as the severe shortage of frequencies available for new services. The two most important application areas today are: short-haul transmission links for wireless infrastructure systems at 23, 38 or 58 GHz, a very valuable market already, and automotive radar sensors - simple collision warning devices and intelligent cruise control sensors at 24 and 77 GHz as well - having a very large market potential for the near future.