Study Case: Utilization of PCBs in Automotive Sensor Systems
In the rapidly evolving world of autonomous vehicles, sensors play a crucial role in ensuring safe and intelligent driving. Keysight Technologies, an enterprise dedicated to accelerating innovation for connectivity and security, has been addressing the challenge of radar sensor technology, particularly for autonomous driving and driver assistance.
Keysight faced difficulties in choosing the right boards for their automotive sensor prototypes. However, they found a solution in Sierra Circuits, a PCB manufacturing company known for its precision and reliability.
Sierra Circuits' PCB was used in a mmWave radar emulator, providing mechanical support for Keysight's project. The company was able to meet Keysight's major concern with reasonable tolerances, in this case, 10 mil accuracy. Moreover, Sierra Circuits was able to deliver highly flat and stiff boards within an impressive turnaround time.
The board built by Sierra Circuits was also used in a polarization twister, a part of a major system being tested by a car manufacturer. The polarization twister is being offered to the automotive company for testing purposes.
The Role of Sensors in Modern Automobiles
Modern automobile designs, particularly autonomous cars, rely on a variety of sensors to perceive their environment. These sensors include:
- Radar Sensors: These use radio waves to detect objects and measure their distance and speed. They come in short-, mid-, and long-range types.
- LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging): LiDAR systems emit laser pulses and measure the reflected light to create high-resolution 3D maps of the surroundings.
- Cameras: These provide visual information similar to human sight, capturing images used for recognizing pedestrians, road signs, traffic lights, and other vehicles.
- Ultrasonic Sensors: Commonly used for close-range detection, they emit sound waves to detect nearby objects.
- GPS (Global Positioning System): Combined with sensor data, GPS helps with vehicle localization and navigation.
- Thermal Cameras: Some autonomous vehicles use thermal imaging sensors to detect objects in low visibility conditions.
Together, these sensors provide diverse and complementary data streams that autonomous vehicle systems analyze to build detailed environmental models, predict the behavior of objects and pedestrians, and make informed driving decisions in real-time.
The Importance of Precision in PCB Manufacturing
The characteristics of sensors, such as sensitivity, resolution, linearity, zero and full-scale drift, range, and repeatability, require precision in their supporting components. Sierra Circuits is capable of meeting the standard -40 °C to +80 °C temperature range for such mechanical boards, ensuring the reliability of the sensors they support.
For more information about Sierra Circuits' services, visit their PCB manufacturing page. The High-Speed PCB Design Guide is also a valuable resource for understanding signal integrity issues, transmission lines and controlled impedance, the selection process of high-speed PCB materials, and high-speed layout guidelines.
With the collaboration between Keysight Technologies and Sierra Circuits, the future of autonomous vehicles is one step closer to reality, promising safer, more intelligent, and more efficient travel.
- The precision and reliability of Sierra Circuits' PCB manufacturing played a key role in addressing the challenge of radar sensor technology for autonomous driving and driver assistance, as demonstrated by Keysight Technologies.
- In addition to being used in a mmWave radar emulator, Sierra Circuits' boards were also utilized in a polarization twister, a crucial part of a system under test by an automotive company, highlighting the company's adoption of advanced technology in the transportation industry.
- The diverse data streams generated by sensors in modern automobiles, including radar, LiDAR, cameras, ultrasonic sensors, GPS, and thermal cameras, are critical for building detailed environmental models and making real-time driving decisions in the realm of data-and-cloud-computing and automotive technology.
- As the importance of precision in PCB manufacturing grows in relation to the rising demand for sensors in the industry, finance, and energy sectors, the knowledge and resources offered by Sierra Circuits, such as their High-Speed PCB Design Guide, are increasingly valuable for understanding and addressing signal integrity issues, controlled impedance, and high-speed PCB design principles.
