This 20-month project will result in a High-Performance Imaging Radar product, designed specifically for Highly Automated Vehicles. This addresses a gap in the CAM supply chain currently, and will facilitate more robust, lower cost systems that can operate across a wider range of weather conditions. Autonomous vehicles use a range of sensors to feed data to the perception system, typically these will include radar, lidar and cameras. Due to their accuracy and high resolution, lidars are heavily relied upon but are fragile and suffer from loss of performance as weather conditions deteriorate. Radar is much more robust and less prone to effects of weather, and is also more cost-effective, but the performance of currently available automotive radar limits usage. The vision of this project is to develop a high-performance imaging radar that complies with automotive standards that will reduce the reliance on lidar and remove the need for it altogether in some cases. This requires the ultimate in performance from the front-end antennae and analogue design. It also requires a step up in the digital signal processing performance which will require improvements to AptCore's radar processor design and moving it to a silicon implementation to facilitate further performance improvements and reduce system cost. To do this we will utilise the project partners' design innovations and domain expertise. Plextek Services Ltd will provide the expertise in antenna design. Cambridge Sensoriis Ltd will provide the expertise in analogue design. AptCore Ltd will provide expertise in processor design, signal processing software and will lead the project. GarField Microelectronics Ltd will provide expertise in ASIC design which will enable the full potential of the AptCore processor to be realised Together the partners will deliver this world leading product, which will be manufactured in the UK, and will benefit the UK and global CAM markets and bring significant benefits to the UK economy.

Future 5G networks will offer significantly higher data rates through increased channel bandwidths to meet growing demand for new mobile and internet of things (IoT) applications and high-resolution multimedia user experiences. Whilst initial commercial 5G networks will operate within spectrum that is either already in use by current cellular systems or new spectrum in similar frequencies, the huge potential of 5G will only be realised when systems start to use the mmWave bands at much higher frequencies. Such solutions could utilise huge throughputs but the trade-off is shorter distances and far more unpredictable and demanding propagation characteristics. Sophisticated antenna arrays are therefore required for mmWave 5G applications as the 5G market rapidly evolves towards commercial roll out over the next 3-5 years. Phased array antennas use electronic circuits to change the phase of the radio signal to a multiplicity of antennas to steer the radio signal in a specific direction. Conventional phased array antennas use active semiconductor components to steer the radio signal. The high cost of semiconductor components, and the complexity and high-power consumption are the primary impediments to their deployment in large-scale commercial applications. This project aims to develop an advanced phased array antenna for mmWave 5G applications, integrating Sofant's highly-innovative, radio frequency microelectromechanical system (RF MEMS) technology and a custom-built controller circuit. In collaboration with GarField/Matrics, this project will help Sofant to develop key components required for fully integrated antenna/RF MEMS designs. When compared to current semiconductor designs, the RF MEMS device is much cheaper per square mm to manufacture, uses less than half the area and fewer radio components, thereby reducing the overall antenna cost by up to 50%. New RF MEMS components and smart antenna solutions will be exploited to wireless handset and infrastructure OEMs actively developing solutions for mmWave 5G applications by 2019, creating a significant opportunity for Sofant and contributing to the UK's economy over the next 5 years through the export-led growth of a leading-edge technology SME in the highly competitive global mmWave 5G market. A scalable development platform and supply chain will be established for high volume production to generate economies of scale and drive down costs to support wide market adoption. New knowledge gained during this project will help Sofant and GarField/Matrics to develop the next level of control circuits for integrating the devices into much larger mmWave antenna arrays for future 5G infrastructure applications.