New NTU Microchip Shrinks Radar Cameras to Fit into a Palm

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Asst Prof Zheng said that when mounted on UAVs, it can take high quality images on demand to monitor traffic conditions or even the coastlines for trespassers.

"Driverless cars will also be able to better scan the environment around them to avoid collisions and navigate more accurately in all weather conditions compared to current laser and optical technologies," he added.

"Finally, with the space industry moving towards small satellite systems, such as the six satellites launched by NTU, smaller satellites can now also have the same advanced imaging capabilities previously seen only in the large satellites."

Large satellites can weigh up to 1,000 kg, but microsatellites weigh only 100 to 200 kg.

Recognised internationally with strong market interest

NTU's new radar chip was presented and published at the prestigious International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2016. Commonly referred to as the "Olympics of Integrated Circuits Design", ISSCC is the world's top forum for presenting advances in solid-state circuits and systems and is attended by major industry players.

The chip was developed by Asst Prof Zheng's team of five at NTU's VIRTUS IC Design Centre of Excellence. The group was the first from Singapore to publish in ISSCC and is also the most published local group, with seven papers to date.

NTU's new technology has attracted the attention of many multinational corporations, such as US aerospace company Space X; Netherlands semiconductor company NXP; Japanese electronics giant Panasonic, and French satellite maker Thales.

The next phase will be research in space applications to be carried out at the Smart Small Satellite Systems - Thales in NTU (S4TIN), a joint laboratory between NTU and Europe's largest satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space.

Game changer for Singapore

Associate Professor Low Kay Soon, Director of NTU's Satellite Research Centre, said the new radar chip will be a game changer in the space industry, which will bolster Singapore's growing reputation as a satellite building nation.

"Monitoring the environment with a clear image using a traditional optical camera is always very challenging due to clouds and changing light conditions," said Assoc Prof Low.

"This is especially the case for the tropics where the sky is always cloudy. With a miniature radar-on-chip system, it cuts down the required weight and size of the payload that a satellite needs to carry.

"More significantly, the lower power consumption makes it very suitable for microsatellites such as the X-SAT or VELOX-CI which NTU has launched. For small satellites, there is a limited area to mount the solar panels, which limits its power generation. Consequently the conventional SAR systems cannot be used due to its high power requirements."

Asst Prof Zheng says it will take another three to six years before NTU's new radar chip is ready for commercial use. He is now working with NTU's innovation and enterprise company, NTUitive to find industry partners to license the technology or to spin off a company.

Director of VIRTUS, NTU Professor Joseph Chang added: "Singapore is one the very few select countries in the world with advanced technical capabilities to design complex microchips for space applications."

"NTU professors associated with VIRTUS have received research funding of over S$5 million from Singapore and various countries like the United States, to design microchips for space applications. Recently, two patents have been filed for the novel design of these microchips."

VIRTUS filed ten patents in the last year alone, for various innovative microchips with applications ranging from image processing to computing.

According to Markets and Markets global forecasts and analysis, the global market for radar systems is estimated to grow to US$24 billion by 2020.

About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and its Interdisciplinary Graduate School. It has a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.

NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes - the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering - and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI).

Ranked 13th in the world, NTU has also been ranked the world's top young university for the last two years running. The University's main campus has been named one of the Top 15 Most Beautiful in the World. NTU also has a campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district.

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