Called the ‘Premium radar SDK’ (PRSDK), the software will initially cover: interference mitigation, MIMO waveform optimisation and angular resolution enhancement, and is intended to be used with the company’s S32R45 or S32R41 radar processor.

“It is planned to continue to evolve over time, expanding the list of algorithms through regular releases to accommodate emerging radar requirements and NXP’s future radar roadmap,” said the company. “The PRSDK implementation complies with international automotive quality management standards IATF 16949:2016 & ASPICE Level 3 requirements. The deliverables allow user customisation.”

Core libraries are also designed for ISO26262 ASIL-B/D functional safety compliance.

The development kit can handle multiple interference sources with different natures: uncorrelated, semi-correlated and highly-correlated types in congested environments.

For radars with multiple input and multiple output (MINO) sub-antennas, the MIMO algorithm can construct virtual arrays, and mitigate associated virtual array artefacts – computational angular resolution enhancement is included for both uniform and sparse antenna arrays beyond physical aperture limits.

There are two evaluation options for OEM and Tier 1 suppliers, under an evaluation license agreement:

• The MATLAB-based version delivers the algorithms as compiled code to allow developers to understand what the PRSDK does by feeding customer test vectors, computing and visualising the output vectors.
• The MCU-based evaluation option, providing bit accuracy, includes the algorithm binary files to run on the NXP target radar processor evaluation board and demonstrates PRSDK real time performance.

According to NXP:

In about 5 years, cars will carry twice as many radar sensors as today, and over 90% of the radar sensors will be emitting in the same 77 – 79GHz band. Concerns about radar interference are growing, and the need for mitigation measures has become imperative. At the same time, automakers are seeking efficient ways to improve sensor performance. Consequently, carefully optimised MIMO waveforms are essential, enabling radar sensors with higher resolution and longer reach. These special modulation schemes allow more transmitters to operate simultaneously, coding the individual transmit antenna signals to ensure they can be differentiated on the receiver side. Moreover, higher resolution sensors are desired for both corner and front radar applications to support more accurate object separation and classification.

PRSDK is aimed at corner radar, mid to long range front radar and 4D imaging radar, as well as non-automotive radar.

The PRSDK product page can be found here