Infineon RASIC CTRX8188F Enters Mass Production as Automotive Industry's First 8Tx8Rx Imaging Radar MMIC, Accelerating the Shift to Centralized Radar Architectures

­Infineon Technologies AG has started the production of the RASIC™ CTRX8188F, a next-generation 8Tx8Rx radar transceiver that positions Infineon at the forefront of the rapidly expanding automotive 4D and HD imaging radar market. The device is ready for production engineered to support edge processing in combination with AURIXTM TC45 and is the first MMIC in the market which enables centralized radar architectures. Centralized radar systems adopt an emerging design approach in which raw sensor data is transmitted directly to a central vehicle computer for processing. This new concept reduces overall system cost while improving performance significantly over conventional edge-processing designs. As automakers and Tier-1 suppliers accelerate investment in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving platforms, the CTRX8188F provides customers with a competitive, production-ready solution that addresses both cost and performance requirements.

"The automotive radar market is at an inflection point. Centralized architectures are redefining how radar systems are designed, and the CTRX8188F positions Infineon and our customers at the leading edge of this transition,” says Dr. Frank Findeis, Head of RF business line at Infineon. “With the industry's first productive 8Tx8Rx solution, we are giving Tier-1 suppliers and automakers a platform to speed up their ADAS and autonomous driving programs from entry-level assistance systems all the way to high-end imaging radar. This strengthens Infineon's position as the partner of choice for customers developing centralized radar platforms at scale." 

The ADAS market is expanding rapidly, driven by regulatory mandates and consumer demand for higher levels of vehicle safety. The CTRX8188F is designed to help Infineon's customers meet these demands. It delivers industry-leading signal-to-noise ratio and noise figure performance, enabling 4D and HD imaging radar systems capable of detecting vulnerable road users and vehicles at distances of up to 400 meters. The CTRX8188F meets the RF performance requirements of the Level 2 ADAS GB regulation 'Safety Requirements for Combined Driver Assistance Systems in Intelligent and Connected Vehicles', as well as Level 2+ applications. This makes it a compelling solution for customers targeting the Chinese automotive market, one of the world's largest and most regulation-driven ADAS markets.

The CTRX8188F is the first production-ready 8Tx8Rx radar transceiver in the market, based on Infineon's second-generation CMOS technology. This technology generation enables higher performance at lower cost compared to previous RF semiconductor nodes, strengthening Infineon's competitive position in automotive radar silicon. The device supports cascading configurations even higher than 32Tx32Rx channels, enabling customers to address the full range of imaging radar system tiers from entry-level ADAS to high-end autonomous driving platforms within a single scalable product architecture. 
A configurable CSI-2 interface ensures broad compatibility with existing and emerging SerDes and asymmetric Ethernet communication technologies. This simplifies integration with central processing solutions from major automotive SoC suppliers, reducing development risk and accelerating time-to-market.

To reduce customer development costs and shorten program timelines, Infineon offers the CARKIT radar development platform in multiple configurations. The CARKIT supports both centralized and edge radar architectures, enabling customers to evaluate and prototype system designs rapidly before committing to full program investment. Included software tools, example code, and a graphical user interface further reduce engineering resource requirements at the design stage, lowering the barrier to adoption of Infineon's radar technology across customer programs of varying scale.

Availability
Productive samples of the CTRX8188F radar MMIC and CARKIT modules in various configurations are already available now. More information is available here.