The problem addressed in Car2TERA is that more and more applications appear which require higher frequency spectrums (above 150 GHz), but industries move very slowly and try to adapt existing technologies instead of daring to introduce disrupting technologies to solve the problems in an optimum way. Introducing disruptive technologies is even more difficult when technology has to be developed for cost-sensitive and high volume applications. Car2TERA addresses both by working on the following problems:
(1) a new class of car radars, which is in cabin car-radars for monitoring the interior of the car, requiring high resolution on a low range, and having strong cost constrains which require new and innovative solutions such as the micromachined beam-forming technology developed at KTH which results in high performance but only requiring a drastically reduced antenna system size, as well as the frequency beam-sweeping which requires much less hardware complexity as compared to conventional phased-array or even digital beamforming.
(2) Terahertz-over-plastic-fibre: many applications, in particular radio-access-network base-stations, have multiple short-range (<10m) high data rate wired links, as of now implemented by optical-communication links. The optical links are prone to reliability issues (life time), practical handling issues (dust particles), and high cost. Therefore, upconverting the data to millimeter-wave frequencies and sending the signal over plastic-microwave fibre, as pioneered by Car2TERA for the D-band, is an excellence alternative solving this technology problem.
Modern cars have added functionality in terms of autonomous functions and in terms of passenger safety. This requires a large number of new sensors. Car2TERA developed a new type of high-resolution, low-range, in-cabin radar sensor concept and has successfully demonstrated it in DEM1. For DEM2, Car2TERA has successfully demonstrated a D-band PMF link, which contributes significantly to cost reduction of the radio-access network and thus of mobile telecommunication.
The objective of Car2TERA is to develop emerging sub-THz (150-330 GHz) smart electronic systems based on latest semiconductor, microsystem and nanoelectronics technologies, and is aimed to implement TRL-4 demonstrators in two high-potential application scenarios: (1) a new class of compact, high-resolution, electronic-beam-steering short-range car radar sensors, with the primary application being in-cabin passenger monitoring (currently fastest growing car sensor market) for individually and real-time adjusted crash mitigation measures; (2) short-distance, high data-rate THz-over-plastic data links for telecommunication radio-access and backbone networks facilitating the data growth demanded by 5G and IoT. Car2TERA combines, for the first time, the results of recent achievements in semiconductor, micro- and nanoelectronics scientific projects, including the Graphene Flagship, an ERC and several EU collaboration projects, with the following emerging THz technologies: (1) 600-GHz-fmax SiGe monolithic-microwave integrated circuits (MMICs); (2) silicon micromachining for system integration, packaging and phased-array antenna front-end; (3) integrated MEMS reconfigurability; and (4) large-bandwidth, high-linearity graphene MMICs; (5) advanced signal processing including OFDM radar signals and AI sensor fusion. The main work of the first reporting phase of this project was: (1) exchange of technology information between the partners, including design kits, technology capability; (2) discussion of the applications and delivery of specifications to the specific applications; (3) discussion of possible concepts for implementation of prototype solutions.
