Holger H. Meinel

Commercial applications of millimeterwaves: history, present status, and future trends

The possibility to apply millimeterwaves for various applications in the commercial arena has a long history, as the advantages being offered by such systems have been known for more than three decades. Within the last five years the necessity of turning their attention away from the military sector towards commercial products has caused more and more companies to look at millimeterwave communications and automotive radar. By chance, this was accompanied by the advent of low-cost integration procedures, i.e., hybrid- and monolithic-integration techniques, respectively. Thus, the necessary technology is mature and available now, opening a wide field of deployment areas. Millimeterwave systems have found an ever increasing interest, due to their specific advantages, as well as the lack of frequencies for new services. While the military market is decreasing, commercial applications in the area of microwave tags, radio communication, and traffic control are increasing rapidly. The two most important application areas right now are: 38 GHz short-haul transmission links for PCN installations, an already valuable niche market, and 77 GHz automotive radar sensors-simple collision warning devices and intelligent cruise control sensors as well-which have the largest market potential for the very near future. >

New Integrated mm-Wave Components Using Fin-Lines

New integrated fin-line components are presented: reflecting and matched PIN-attenuators, power-divider, PIN double-throw switch, and different oscillator configurations. All exhibit excellent performance and great flexibility in design and application.

Applications of microwaves and millimeterwaves for vehicle communications and control in Europe

The author discusses the broad scope of ongoing work in Europe in the area of vehicle communication and control. The solution to traffic congestion and increasing pollution lies in the application of advanced technologies to control and direct the flow of vehicles. Pan-European projects like PROMETHEUS or DRIVE are supporting such solutions. Four major areas of applications are distinguished: automatic debiting systems (ADS), road traffic informatics (RTI), microwave Doppler sensors (MDS), and collision avoidance radar. Millimeter-wave systems have found an increasing interest, due to their specific advantages, as well as the lack of frequencies available for new services. The four application areas are described.<<ETX>>

Automotive Millimeterwave Radar History and present Status

The possibility to apply millimeterwaves for various applications in the commercial arena has a long history, as the impressive advantages being offered by such systems have been known for more than 3 decades. Furthermore, the necessity of turning their attention away from the military sector towards commercial products has caused more and more companies to look into millimeterwave communications and automotive radar. Advantageously, this was accompanied by the advent of low-cost integration procedures, i.e. Hybrid- and Monolithic-Integration Techniques, respectively, as well as surpassing advances in the area digital signal processing. Thus millimeterwave systems have found an ever increasing interest, due to their specific advantages, as well as the severe shortage of frequencies available for new services. The two most important application areas today are: short-haul transmission links for wireless infrastructure systems at 23, 38 or 58 GHz, a very valuable market already, and automotive radar sensors - simple collision warning devices and intelligent cruise control sensors at 24 and 77 GHz as well - having a very large market potential for the near future.

Millimeterwaves for automotive applications

The advantages of millimeterwave systems are commonly known today, one outstanding application area is automotive radar. Since 1975 many companies, institutions and laboratories experimented with various millimeterwave-frequency pulse- and/or FM-CW-radar systems. However, stand alone units like forward looking automotive radar for e.g. AICC (Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control), or Microwave Doppler Sensors for Drive-by-Wire purposes are only the beginning of the Intelligent CAR concept. Traffic flow monitoring and controlling and the ultimate goal of cooperative driving, needs the implementation of some communication means between infrastructure and vehicle as well as the vehicle-to-vehicle communication, i.e. the Intelligent ROAD concept.

Automotive radar and related traffic applications of millimeterwaves

The advantages of millimeterwave systems are common knowledge today; one outstanding application area is automotive radar. Since 1975 many companies, institutions and laboratories have experimented with various millimeterwave pulse- and/or FM-CW-radar systems. A summary of the efforts since 1988 is given. Having small size antennas to fit into the front of a car (thus the choice of 77 GHz) such radars are built for short range use only, up to 150 m maximum (European specification-US 100 m only) and have to be and can be achieved easily, under all weather conditions. However, such stand alone units like the AICC (Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control) radar is only the beginning. Traffic flow monitoring and control and the ultimate goal of cooperative driving needs the implementation of communication means between infrastructure and vehicle as well as the vehicle-to-vehicle communication. It is only today, that demand pull has taken over from the usual technology push. Passenger-comfort and traffic-safety is the design goal for the future, to provide competitive advantages for car manufacturers also within the next century.

The market for short-haul line-of-sight millimeterwave transmission links

GSM type telephone systems have become a global standard today. In such a digital network, mobile CELLULAR-TELEPHONEs communicate at 0.9 or 1.8 GHz within cell sizes of 1 to 20 km in diameter; groups of five to 20 of these cells have to be linked to a controller-station. This is the first valuable niche market, where millimeter radio fits in. Wireless CATV with projects like CellularVision, utilizing defined spectrum allocations at 28 and 42 GHz, respectively, are the basis for another upcoming market: VIDEO-ON-DEMAND, i.e. interactive television transmission and teleconferencing. This is the second valuable niche market, where millimeter radio fits in. The actual market situation-upcoming trends and development directions-with emphasis on Europe, will be reviewed in this paper.

Neue Millimeterwellenkomponenten in quasiplanarer Leitungstechnik

Übers ich t : Nach einem Überblick über Arten und Eigenschaften von quasiplanaren Leitungen im Millimeterwellenbereich werden neue Ergebnisse von in dieser Technik aufgebauten Komponenten mitgeteilt: PIN-Dämpfungsglieder mit hoher Bandbreite und geringen Verlusten im Frequenzbereich 18 bis 98 GHz, Breitbanddetektoren bis 140 GHz mit geringer Welligkeit, Breitband-Gegentaktmischer sowie Gunn-Oszillatoren mit im Reflexionsbereich betriebenen, periodisch belasteten Leitungen.

Radar Sensors in Cars

Automotive radar based on millimetre waves—today in the 24/26 GHz and in the 77/79 GHz range—has been under investigation and development since several decades. Already in the early 1970s first 35 GHz radar sensors were tested over several millions of road kilometres. Since 1998—beginning with an ACC (Autonomous Cruise Control) radar sensor in the Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan—automotive radar is commercially available and employed by various OEM’s all over the world. These days such radar systems are used for various vehicular applications, predominantly for functions like ACC, or BSD (Blind Spot Detection) to name just two important safety functions. The development over the last four decades is described.

Active safety: the impact of SARA for future advances in the field

This paper gives an overview on recent development trends and future European initiatives in the area of automotive e-safety. Short range radar (SRR) for novel safety and comfort systems being fostered by the SARA initiative has paved the way for more advanced ITS systems like stability control for heavy duty vehicles (HDV) or e-call. The obstacles to make it happen, possible solutions, and the resulting benefits are discussed