TDK Ventures invests in digital imaging radar-on-chip for automotive market

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) announced today that subsidiary TDK Ventures invested in Uhnder, a leading developer of advanced digital imaging radar-on-chip solutions.

Uhnder, a leading semiconductor company, develops an advanced single-chip digital imaging radar solution for automotive and emerging technology markets

TDK Corporation will support Uhnder with its deep expertise and resources across sensors, sensor fusion, RF components, electronics components, and manufacturing

Uhnder offers a high-performance, low power, low cost, compact radar solution well suited for today’s passenger and commercial vehicles, in addition to automated vehicles of the future. Uhnder’s digital imaging radar solution uses the 77/79 GHz band that offers impressive levels of range, resolution, and accuracy all on a single chip, positioning Uhnder radar as a key component in driver safety. Uhnder’s radar offers versatility for a wide range of applications such as automotive ADAS, semi and fully autonomous driving, robotics, port automation, and traffic management.

“Uhnder developed a remarkable digital imaging radar-on-chip solution that allows the radar to detect other vehicles, people, and objects on the road at a greater range and with higher accuracy and resolution, contributing to safety in a meaningful way,” said Nicolas Sauvage, Managing Director, TDK Ventures. “TDK is eager to make meaningful contributions through its partnership with Uhnder that we are confident will continue to accelerate their success.”

Uhnder utilizes digital code modulation technology (DCM) in contrast to the frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW) approach that is popular among other radar solutions on the market. Its 77/79 GHz digital radar-on-chip has 12 transmit and 16 receive antenna elements that comprise 192 virtual elements. Additionally, Uhnder radar can utilize MIMO and digital beamforming to achieve high contrast resolution (the ability to accurately distinguish a small object next to a large object), higher accuracy, longer range, low susceptibility to interference, and strong imaging capability – which are all typical shortcomings of other radar solutions.

“Uhnder is innovating radar technology on many fronts. We are pioneering a digital imaging radar-on-chip solution that can determine the distance, velocity, and position of objects in the environment with superior performance to other radar solutions,” said Manju Hegde, CEO and co-founder of Uhnder. “TDK has been an amazing partner and we greatly appreciate their help and determination to deliver synergies across our technology and business.”

Uhnder takes advantage of the benefits of CMOS technology and combines advanced CMOS design with the digital code modulation approach to achieve standout radar performance per watt. The baseband, RF, analog frontend, digital front end, digital backend, and the post radar detection digital signal processing are all integrated on a single chip, saving space and creating a very high-performance radar at low cost.

www.tdk-ventures.com

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