Additive Manufactured Automotive Antenna for Autonomous Driving

Introduction

To enable autonomous driving, vehicles need to perceive their surroundings in 360 degrees under any conditions. Autonomous vehicles thus require a variety of high-performance sensors, including camera, lidar, and radar systems. These sensors need to be weather-independent, reliable, cost-effective, and invisible.

Challenges with Current Sensors

While cameras and lidar are struggling with various drawbacks, radar sensors have the potential to fulfill all requirements. However, critical technical hurdles need to be addressed first, and Golden Devices' technology plays a key role in overcoming them.

Importance of Antennas

High-performance antennas are a crucial factor in achieving the necessary level of sensor system performance. Antennas are the connecting and at the same time limiting element between chips, software, and the external environment.

Limitations of PCB Antennas

The antennas transmitting and receiving signals from radar sensors are currently based on printed circuit boards (PCB). Due to their 2-dimensional structure and very limited design possibilities, these PCB antennas have severe shortcomings in terms of performance.

Advantages of 3D Waveguide Antennas

3-dimensional waveguide antennas are a promising alternative, significantly reducing transmission losses and increasing bandwidth. However, the established design of waveguide antennas is based on a split-block approach, which means that several parts are assembled and manufactured mainly by injection molding. Both factors are limiting the performance of waveguide antennas and therefore radar sensors.

Golden Devices' Solution

To overcome this limitation, Golden Devices has developed a unique manufacturing process based on 3D printing and a proprietary metallization concept. Unlike the split-block process, Golden Devices manufactures the waveguide antennas in one piece.

Benefits of the New Manufacturing Process

This provides numerous essential advantages in terms of:

• Technical performance
• Significantly reduced product development times and costs
• Faster time-to-market

Next Steps

In the next step, we will now scale and automate the manufacturing process to realize series production.