Introduction by Pat Hindle, Microwave Journal Editor

Automotive electronics is experiencing a big boost from the trends toward more connectivity, autonomy and electrification. These trends started years ago with the addition of satellite radio and GPS but is quickly increasing with cellular connectivity, ADAS and autonomy being incorporated into more vehicles. Yole Development predicts a 23% CAGR from 2016-2022 for mmWave radar sensors growing to $7.5 B at the module level. The global automotive electronics market is predicted to grow from its current value of $270B to more than $400B by 2024 according to Global Market Insights, Inc. The development of intelligent vehicle technologies owing to the need for advanced safety and comfort parameters will drive the market growth according to the company. Connecting vehicles to other vehicles (V2V) and to other devices/networks or everything (V2X), will enable new capabilities other than just communications and streaming services. It also would allow enhanced safety and traffic/navigation assistance where vehicles can connect to each other and avoid accidents and congested areas automatically – maybe traffic lights will become obsolete one day. The promise of such capabilities will require advanced designs of the various electronics and sensors in vehicles. The eBook covers some of these topics starting off with high-resolution, wideband radar measurement challenges showing how to measure wider band radar sensor and signals. The next article by ADI addresses automotive radar and the congested spectrum dealing with the potential “urban electronic battlefield”. It discusses potential jamming and how to avoid it whether on purpose or not. TDK covers another important subject in automotive electronics as the electric vehicle becomes more popular. It discusses design challenges of infrastructure for automotive wireless charging as these stations are rolled out publically and become available in the future home. It discusses wireless power transfer and the design challenges and solutions to accomplish power transfer at the highest rates possible with today’s hardware. Finally, all wireless applications need proper antenna design and testing so Copper Mountain Technologies, the sponsor of this eBook, covers characterizing and tuning antennas using low cost metrology grade VNAs and frequency extension systems to 110 GHz. Most current antenna measurement systems are relatively expensive but this low cost, turn-key system will enable companies to perform these measurements accurately at much lower levels of investment in equipment. We hope that this topic intrigues engineers to learn more about the fast growing area of automotive electronics. We will have more follow-on eBooks covering this topic as we publish new articles. Thanks to Copper Mountain Technologies for sponsoring this one so you can download it for free.