Physics / mechanism
mmWave radar operates in the 30–300 GHz band (most automotive and industrial deployments use 76–81 GHz). Transmitted FMCW chirps reflect off targets; range is extracted from beat frequency, velocity from Doppler shift, angle from phased-array receive aperture. Key parameters: range resolution ∝ 1/bandwidth (4 GHz BW → ~3.75 cm), velocity resolution ∝ carrier frequency and chirp duration, angular resolution ∝ aperture size. Modern 77 GHz SoCs (TI AWR, NXP S32R, Vayyar) integrate TX/RX chains, ADC, and DSP on a single RFCMOS or SiGe die. MIMO virtual aperture extension pushes angular resolution below 1°. Point-cloud outputs now feed directly into neural inference pipelines on-chip.
Competitive landscape
LiDAR dominates perception where point-cloud density matters; cameras dominate where texture/color is needed. mmWave wins on weather immunity, through-barrier sensing, and velocity-first use cases. Ultrasonic covers short-range parking (<5 m) at lower cost. Structured-light and ToF depth sensors compete in indoor/industrial but fail outdoors. Key differentiation axes:
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.