Infineon Technologies' new radar chip can change this by bringing long- and medium-range radar to the mid-range automobile market starting in mid-2010. With the radar chip RXN7740 of the RASIC (Radar System IC) product family, vendors will be able to shrink their radar systems to a quarter of the current size while reducing system costs for the radio frequency module by more than 20 percent.

"Radar technology is the key to innovative driver assistance systems that can help avoid car accidents," said Hans Adlkofer, who heads the sensors business at Infineon. "Our radar chip gives cars a sense of 'vision' in all weather environments including fog, rain and snow. Thanks to this chip, long-range radar can become part of the standard equipment of medium-range cars by the middle of 2010."

Automotive radar: 65 percent growth
US-market researcher Strategy Analytics predicts that the use of obstacle warning systems in cars could increase by more than 65 percent annually over five years from 2006. According to Strategy Analytics, in 2011 around 2.3 million of the 3 million cars equipped with obstacle warning systems will use radar technology. Also in 2014, 7 percent of all new cars can include this kind of system, primarily in Europe and in Japan.

How cars "see" in fog
A car's radar system sends out radio-frequency electromagnetic waves that are reflected back by vehicles or other objects ahead. Infineon's radar chip sends and receives these radio-frequency signals which then are processed in the background.