Enterprise Interview | How did domestic Radar enterprises break through? Which route is better for 4D Radar?

In 2020, Chengtai Technology's shipments in the commercial vehicle millimeter-wave radar market reached more than 100,000 units.

As we all know, the millimeter-wave radar market has been monopolized by foreign giants such as ABCD. However, in recent years, a few domestic companies have begun to achieve breakthroughs in mass production. For example, Chengtai Technology shipped more than 100,000 units in the commercial vehicle millimeter-wave radar market in 2020, ranking first among domestic manufacturers.

How did Chengtai Technology break the monopoly of foreign manufacturers? Zos Automotive Research interviewed Mr. Zhang Wenhai, the product manager of Chengtai Technology.

Zhang Wenhai

In 2014, he entered the automotive parts industry and was responsible for the R&D and R&D management of vehicle-mounted sensors. He once independently reverse-engineered a first-tier international brand sensor, breaking the monopoly of its products in China. After engaging in R&D management, he led the team to build a new product line from 0 to 1. In 2020, he joined Chengtai Technology and was responsible for the planning and management of millimeter-wave radar products.

QThe domestic millimeter-wave radar industry is developing rapidly. Can you talk about its development trend in the next three to five years?

Zhang Wenhai: From the upstream of the industry chain, as the country attaches great importance to the chip industry, there will be more and more chip manufacturers in the next three to five years. my country's millimeter wave radar chip manufacturers will become more mature in the next three to five years, including doing better in technology, price and service; the products they launch in the next three to five years will be more cost-effective than international first-tier brands.

For the international first-tier chip manufacturers, whether it is in terms of technical service support, price competitiveness, or supply chain stability, they will do better and better in the future; after all, China is a relatively large market and no one wants to lose it.

As the country pays more attention to automobile safety and autonomous driving technology, the corresponding regulations will become more and more perfect, which will drive more and more commercial vehicles or passenger cars to use millimeter-wave radar. Millimeter-wave radar will become a standard feature of new cars on the market in the future.

Q: There are more and more millimeter-wave radar manufacturers in China. What advantages do you think a start-up company needs to have in terms of production and operation, automation capabilities, quality control, and cost in order to stand out from the crowd?

Zhang Wenhai: First of all, the automotive industry is different from the civilian consumer goods industry. The entire industry has relatively high requirements for the production system, such as production experience. Startups should introduce a production management team with automotive industry background in the initial stage to ensure that the company can be competitive in the industry track in the early stage, rather than blindly producing automotive-grade radar products without automotive industry production experience.

Secondly, in terms of automation, based on our experience, we can take a step-by-step approach. From manual production to semi-automation, and then to full automation, this can avoid too much initial capital investment, which will lead to insufficient cash flow for the company. Through a step-by-step approach, the company's products will become more mature, giving the company a process of growth and experience accumulation. Millimeter-wave radar production is still a new thing for domestic companies. If there is not enough understanding of millimeter-wave radar in terms of automation capabilities, and a large investment in the early stage, it is easy to fall into a situation where the subsequent development is insufficient due to excessive losses in the early stage.

Again, in terms of quality control, no matter whether the company is a startup or already established to a certain scale, it must strictly abide by the requirements of IATF16949 and comply with the development processes of the automotive industry. This is to be responsible for its own products and for the life safety of consumers.

Finally, in terms of cost, the domestic millimeter-wave radar industry has taken shape and has a price advantage over foreign products. Considering the current shortage of chips in the world or some policy factors, choosing domestic production will have more advantages in terms of cost and development sustainability.

Q Just now you mentioned the production automation of millimeter-wave radar. Could you briefly introduce the current level of automation of Chengtai Technology?

Zhang Wenhai: At present, Chengtai has built the third millimeter-wave radar production line, which started production in December 2020. It has achieved full automation. It only takes 35 seconds to assemble a radar, and only 3 to 4 workers are needed for the entire production line. Chengtai's level of automation is no less than that of the world's first-tier millimeter-wave radar manufacturers.

QAre Chengtai’s three millimeter-wave radar production lines all fully automated?

Zhang Wenhai: The fully automated production line has been established, and the production line in Shenzhen is still positioned as semi-automated. However, some key processes and assembly processes have been automated to a large extent.

Q Could you please introduce the current production capacity of the three lines?

Zhang Wenhai: The production capacity of the fully automated production line is about 30K per month; the semi-automatic production line is 15-20K per month; and there is another production line planned to be built in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

QChengtai’s current products are mainly concentrated in the commercial vehicle market. Can you give us a detailed introduction to the types of commercial vehicles?

Zhang Wenhai: Currently, heavy trucks are mainly used for logistics or other application scenarios. It mainly depends on the application positioning of the vehicle by the vehicle manufacturer.

QIs Chengtai working with other commercial vehicle ADAS integrators to promote solutions?

Zhang Wenhai: Yes. At present, forward radar still needs to be combined with visual sensors to make a fusion solution, such as the use of 1R1V. We have also received requests from customers to achieve L3 level.

Q: To reach L3 level, what is the configuration of Chengtai solution?

Zhang Wenhai: According to the current commercial vehicle market demand, L3 must be at least 3R1V, one forward radar plus two forward corner radars.

QCan you tell us how many millimeter-wave radars are configured in commercial vehicles at different levels of autonomous driving?

Zhang Wenhai: Let me talk about it in two points. First, for assisted driving below L3, for high-end commercial vehicles, the forward direction is generally 1R1V, plus two rear BSD radars (for alarm), which is a standard configuration. For passenger cars, the current trend is 5R1V.

Q: What is the demand for millimeter-wave radar for autonomous driving above L3?

Zhang Wenhai: For L3 and above, for the low-end version, there must be at least three forward radars, one forward radar, two corner radars, and one BSD radar on the left and right sides of the rear. For the high-end version, because the side of the car must also be considered, two more radars will be installed on the side, so the total number will be 7.

QDo you think millimeter-wave radar will become standard equipment for commercial vehicles in the future?

Zhang Wenhai: The answer is yes. The basis is that our country has issued mandatory installation standards for forward millimeter-wave radars for commercial vehicles. At least for commercial vehicles, it has become standard. For corner radars, my country has officially issued a regulation this year on "Performance Requirements and Experimental Methods for Blind Spot Monitoring Systems for Road Vehicles", which will be officially implemented in June this year. It is not mandatory, but it will be a plus for future new cars and will also promote the use of corner radars for commercial vehicles. According to this trend, both BSD radars and forward radars will become standard for future cars.

Q Chengtai has released two 4D millimeter-wave radars. Could you please introduce the advantages of the several technical development directions of 4D radars and which technical direction do you prefer?

Zhang Wenhai: There are currently three mainstream development directions. The first is software plus unique antenna solutions, the second is multi-transmit and multi-receive antenna integrated chips, and the third is super antenna arrays, which are in the field of metamaterials.

First of all, the software plus unique antenna solution is currently the mainstream solution in the market. The technology is relatively mature and has a certain degree of market recognition, which is one of its advantages. As far as I know, Valeo's 24GHz radar uses its own unique antenna solution, the phased array method, plus its own software algorithm. Chengtai also uses the mainstream design solution of software plus unique antenna solution.

Second, for multi-transmit and multi-receive antenna integrated chips, this direction can greatly reduce the difficulty of radar manufacturers in designing antenna solutions, while also making costs lower and ensuring performance. We are optimistic about this technical direction in the future, because antennas are a key know-how. However, (this technical direction) integrates multi-transmit and multi-receive antennas into chips, which is equivalent to transferring the difficulty to chip design manufacturers. The technical strength of chip design manufacturers and their technical investment in this area will be far greater than that of general radar manufacturers, so it is also a solution that can bring practical benefits to the market.