Renesas Electronics Corp. is set to acquire Steradian Semiconductors, a fabless chip company based in India, that will accelerate Renesas’ radar portfolio.
Steradian provides a 4D imaging radar solution, which will boost Renesas’ automotive and industrial sensing offerings particularly for the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) automotive sector. Renesas is advancing ADAS technology, combining data from multiple sensors such as cameras, radar and lidar.
Radar, specifically, detects objects over long distances in the day or night and even in harsh weather. Radar is considered an essential sensing technology for ADAS and the number of radar sensors installed in the vehicles is forecast to triple over the next five years, Renesas said.
“Radar is an indispensable technology for ADAS, which uses a complex combination of various sensors,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, president and CEO of Renesas. “The addition of Steradian's superb radar technology and engineering talent will allow us to extend our leadership in the automotive segments. We will also leverage their technology for industrial applications to drive our mid- to long-term business growth in both segments.”
Steradian’s radar operates in the 76 GHz to 81 GHz band and the 4D radar transceivers offer integration in a small form factor. Previously, Renesas worked with Steradian in mainly industrial applications using the radar for home security systems such as surveillance, traffic monitoring and human-machine interface systems.
With this deal, Renesas said it will use the radar to develop automotive radar products with plans to start offering the technology before the end of the year. Additionally, the company will develop complete automotive radar offerings that combine ADAS system-on-chips (SoCs) for processing radar signals, power management ICs and timing products with software for object recognition.
