Name: Millimeter wave radar PCBA
Brand: PCB Printed Circuit Board and PCBA manufacturing
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

Description
Data Sheet

1. Overview of Millimeter Wave Radar

Millimeter wave radar is a core sensing technology for automotive and industrial applications, featuring high-precision detection of distance, angle and speed for targets ranging from a few centimeters to several hundred meters—even under harsh environmental conditions. Its stable performance makes it irreplaceable in scenarios requiring reliable environmental perception.

2. Basic Composition of Millimeter Wave Radar PCBA

A typical millimeter wave radar PCBA integrates a radar chipset and supporting electronic components, including power management circuits, flash memory and peripheral interface devices, all assembled on a PCB substrate. The transmitting (TX) and receiving (RX) antennas are also typically integrated on the PCB; however, achieving high antenna performance requires the use of high-frequency PCB materials such as Rogers RO3003 and Isola 370HR, which ensure stable high-frequency signal transmission.

The core components of millimeter wave radar include transceiver antennas (TX&RX), radio frequency (RF) units, analog-to-digital converters (ADC), digital signal processors (DSP), and microcontrollers (MCU). Currently, RF, ADC, DSP, MCU and other functional modules are directly integrated into a single System on Chip (SOC) through CMOS technology, realizing high integration and miniaturization.

3. Millimeter Wave Radar Frequency Bands & Application Scenarios

Millimeter wave radar mainly adopts four frequency bands: 24GHz, 60GHz, 77GHz and 79GHz, each with distinct application positioning:

24GHz: Strictly belonging to the centimeter wave band, it features limited measurement distance (about 60m) and moderate resolution. It is commonly designed as a corner radar for short-range obstacle detection within a wide field of view.
60GHz: Highly susceptible to atmospheric attenuation, it is mainly used for vital sign detection radars to monitor in-vehicle vital signs and personnel posture.
77GHz & 79GHz: Characterized by long measurement distance (about 200m), these two bands are designed as main radars for long-range forward perception. They have become the mainstream frequency bands in the automotive millimeter wave radar field and will dominate future development.

4. Key PCBA Modules of Millimeter Wave Radar

4.1 Power Supply Motherboard

The power supply motherboard is densely populated with inductors, capacitors, diodes, power chips and other components, mainly responsible for system power management. Most manufacturers integrate a safety controller on this board to provide vehicle communication and safety-related functions, ensuring compliance with automotive industry safety standards.

4.2 Radar Motherboard (Core Module)

The radar motherboard serves as the core of the entire millimeter wave radar system, integrating antennas, RF circuits, DSP and control circuits. Its performance directly determines the detection accuracy and stability of the radar.

4.3 Millimeter Wave Radar Antenna PCBA

The antenna achieves the highest transmit-receive conversion efficiency when its length is 1/4 of the electromagnetic wave wavelength. Due to the short wavelength of millimeter waves (only a few millimeters), the antenna can be miniaturized. Forming an array antenna with multiple small antennas enables narrow beam formation, which corresponds to higher azimuth resolution.

Currently, the mainstream solution for millimeter wave radar antennas is the microstrip array. The common design integrates microstrip patch antennas on a high-frequency PCB, which is then integrated into the radar motherboard. This scheme significantly reduces the cost and volume of millimeter wave radar, while ensuring antenna performance.

4.4 Millimeter Wave Radar RF PCBA

The RF module is responsible for signal modulation, transmission, reception and echo signal demodulation, serving as the core RF component of millimeter wave radar. The mainstream solution currently adopts Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) technology, which fabricates passive and active components on a semiconductor substrate through semiconductor manufacturing processes.

In the millimeter wave radar field, MMIC integrated functional circuits based on silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology mainly include low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, mixers, detectors, modulators, voltage-controlled oscillators, phase shifters and switches. In early designs, transmitters, receivers and DSP were independent units, leading to complex radar design and relatively large overall volume.

With the development of CMOS technology, MMIC has achieved miniaturization and provided technical feasibility for integration with DSP and MCU. In late 2016, TI launched the highly integrated 77GHz millimeter wave radar chip AWR1642 based on CMOS technology, integrating front-end MMIC, DSP and MCU on a single SOC. This not only significantly reduces the cost of millimeter wave radar but also greatly lowers the development difficulty.

4.5 Millimeter Wave Radar PCBA DSP Module

DSP extracts intermediate frequency (IF) signals collected from the front end by embedding different signal processing algorithms, obtaining specific types of target information. It is the core component ensuring the stability and reliability of millimeter wave radar.

4.6 Millimeter Wave Radar PCBA Control Circuit

The control circuit of millimeter wave radar performs data fusion based on the target information output by the DSP and the vehicle dynamics information, and finally conducts decision-making processing through the main processor, realizing real-time and accurate target response.

Millimeter wave radar antenna PCBA

5. Millimeter Wave Radar Operating Systems

Based on the different methods of radiating electromagnetic waves, millimeter wave radars are mainly divided into two types: pulse wave operating systems and continuous wave operating systems.

5.1 Pulse Wave Operating System

Pulse wave technology transmits short pulses with peak power in a short time, realizing target speed and distance measurement based on the Doppler frequency and Time of Flight (TOF) principle, and angle measurement based on the phase difference of pulse waves reflected by the same target and received by parallel receiving antennas. With high power, it can detect long-distance small-amplitude moving targets in a large clutter background. However, it has the disadvantages of high cost, large volume and high power consumption, making it rarely used in the automotive millimeter wave radar field currently.

5.2 Continuous Wave Operating System

Continuous wave technology is further divided into Frequency Shift Keying (FSK, capable of measuring the distance and speed of a single target), Continuous Wave (CW, only for speed measurement, not distance measurement) and Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW). Among them, FMCW has become the mainstream technology in continuous wave systems due to its advantages of simultaneous multi-target detection, high resolution and low cost, widely adopted in automotive millimeter wave radar applications.

6. Millimeter Wave Radar Signal Processing Principle

After the receiving antenna of the millimeter wave radar receives the transmitted electromagnetic waves, the echo signal and the transmitted signal are sent to the mixer for mixing. When the transmitted signal encounters the measured target and is reflected back, the frequency of the echo signal changes compared with the transmitted signal. The mixer calculates the frequency difference between the transmitted signal and the echo signal, which is called the IF signal. The IF signal contains the distance information of the measured target; after subsequent processing such as filtering, amplification, analog-to-digital conversion and frequency measurement, the distance information of the measured target can be obtained.

For speed measurement: The phase of the echo signal received by the millimeter wave radar varies with the distance of the measured target. All single chirp signals in a frame are sampled at equal intervals, and the data at the sampling points are subjected to Fourier transform; the speed of the measured target is then measured using the phase difference.

For angle measurement: Multiple receiving antennas are used to receive the same echo signal, and the phase difference between the echo signals is calculated to achieve accurate angle measurement.

7. 3D vs 4D Millimeter Wave Radar

7.1 3D Millimeter Wave Radar

3D millimeter wave radar outputs distance, speed and angle information, where distance (D) and angle (θ) are data in the planar polar coordinate system of the vehicle equipped with the radar. Converting the polar coordinate system to the Cartesian coordinate system can obtain the distance of the target vehicle from the host vehicle in the x and y directions. However, it lacks distance information in the z-axis direction (height), which is a major shortcoming.

This shortcoming is critical for static objects: road manholes, speed bumps, overhead signs, elevated structures, stationary vehicles and other obstacles cannot be judged for traffic impact by 3D millimeter wave radar due to the lack of height information. For static objects, manufacturers often adopt simplified processing methods, either directly ignoring them or greatly reducing the confidence level. This was one of the causes of Tesla's early accidents: the camera failed to identify the fallen white truck, while the millimeter wave radar detected it but had too low decision-making confidence, resulting in the vehicle not triggering the automatic emergency braking function.

7.2 4D Millimeter Wave Radar

The most prominent feature of 4D millimeter wave radar is its ability to accurately detect the pitch angle, thereby obtaining the true height data of the measured target (i.e., the distance of the target object in the z-axis direction of the Cartesian coordinate system). This feature enables 4D millimeter wave radar to effectively identify static objects, making up for the core shortcoming of 3D millimeter wave radar. In addition, the resolution of 4D millimeter wave radar has been greatly improved, with horizontal and vertical resolutions of 1° and 2° respectively—its horizontal resolution is 5-10 times higher than that of ordinary 3D millimeter wave radar.

8. Maxipcb Millimeter Wave Radar PCBA Manufacturing Capabilities & Advantages

8.1 Enterprise Core Strengths

Maxipcb is a professional provider of small and medium-batch electronic services integrated with sample production, holding the IATF16949 automotive quality management system certification and boasting rich experience in automotive electronic product PCBA design and processing. With over 17 years of RF PCB manufacturing experience, the company is committed to building an Industry 4.0 smart PCB factory under the "Internet +" strategy, independently developing an industry-leading automatic PCB quotation and ordering system, implementing Total Quality Management (TQM), and holding UL, ISO9001 and SGS RoHS certifications to provide global customers with professional technical support and one-stop production services.

8.2 Targeted Solutions for Millimeter Wave Radar PCBA

As a one-stop automotive PCBA manufacturing factory, Maxipcb provides integrated services for millimeter wave radar PCBA, including high-frequency PCB manufacturing, SMT patch processing, and subsequent assembly testing. The company undertakes a large number of automotive electronic products, including millimeter wave radar PCBA, most of which have high functional value and practicality, playing a crucial role in the development of the automotive sensing market. With the advancement of autonomous driving technology, the demand for millimeter wave radar (especially 4D millimeter wave radar) will continue to grow.

8.3 High-Frequency Material & Technical Capabilities

Aiming at the high-frequency performance requirements of millimeter wave radar PCBA, Maxipcb adopts high-performance specialized materials, including Rogers series (RO3003, RO4350B, etc.) and Isola 370HR, which are perfectly adapted to the antenna and RF module manufacturing of millimeter wave radar, ensuring stable high-frequency signal transmission and high antenna performance.

The company possesses comprehensive high-precision processing capabilities, including golden finger fabrication, heavy copper production, blind/buried via processing, precision impedance control, resin plug hole, carbon ink printing, backdrilling, countersink hole, depth-controlled drilling, half-plated hole, press-fit hole, peelable blue mask, peelable solder stop, thick copper manufacturing and oversized PCB production—fully supporting the customization needs of high-precision, high-integration millimeter wave radar PCBA.

Layer coverage ranges from 2L to 30L, supporting flexible customized layer design for high-density, high-frequency and miniaturized millimeter wave radar scenarios. Customizable dielectric constant (DK) includes 2.20, 2.55, 3.00, 3.38, 3.48, 3.50, 3.6, 6.15 and 10.2, precisely matching the electrical performance requirements of millimeter wave radar PCBA to ensure stable signal transmission and detection accuracy.

8.4 Quality Assurance & Service Commitment

Millimeter wave radar PCBA design and processing require extremely high technical standards, with strict requirements for PCB circuit boards and processing precision. Maxipcb’s profound professional material expertise, sufficient core material inventory and strict full-process quality control ensure the reliability and stability of millimeter wave radar PCBA products.

We remind automotive and industrial enterprises not to easily replace their millimeter wave radar PCBA manufacturer and processing partner after selection—high-quality millimeter wave radar PCBA factories with professional capabilities are difficult to obtain. Maxipcb adheres to international supply chain standards, continuously upgrades technology and equipment, and brings stable orders and technical support to cooperative enterprises, supporting the development of the millimeter wave radar industry.

As an indispensable part of autonomous driving and industrial sensing development, millimeter wave radar PCBA requires close cooperation with excellent design and manufacturing manufacturers. Maxipcb is committed to delivering stable, high-performance millimeter wave radar PCBA solutions, helping customers achieve technological upgrading and market competitiveness.

Millimeter wave radar PCBA

PCB layers: 4 - 6 layers

Substrate: RO3003 + Isola 370HR

PCB Surface treatment: Immersion silver

PCB Copper thickness: 1oz

PCB Color: Green, Black, White, Red, Blue

PCB Testing: Yes

Chip: Texas Instruments IWR1843BOOST

PCBA Testing: No

Application: Millimeter wave radar

76GHz to 81GHz FMCW Millimeter Wave Sensor