GPU advancements reduce simulation times for 25 GHz automotive radar models

The high frequencies utilized by automotive radar sensors, coupled with the electrically large fascia in front of the sensors, have posed a challenge for simulation software in the form of long simulation times. Advances in NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) have alleviated this problem, increasing the productivity of RF engineers who need high fidelity simulations of a sensor behind fascia. Using a 25 GHz short-range radar (SRR) model, this paper compares multiple GPU architectures released in 2007 through 2013 to look at the downward trend in simulation times. A larger than 65% decrease in simulation times is observed, which allows a fully detailed sensor simulation to run in less than 4 hours on modern GPUs.