Automotive radars are fast becoming key components of modern driver assistance systems with widespread use over the last few years. These radars are expected to not only facilitate driving but to also increase safety. While at the moment millimeter-wave radars are becoming standard equipment in high-class luxury vehicles, the high cost of implementation makes them currently unsuitable for medium and low-end cars. In addition to their high cost, these systems are usually large in size which makes their seamless integration on a vehicle challenging. The application requires high performance, miniaturization, and low cost. System on package (SoP) concept can alleviate the above mentioned problems.

In this work, a novel SoP (2.4 cm x 2.4 cm x 0.5 cm) has been designed for 24 GHz automotive radar applications. The SoP utilizes a mixed LTCC tape system to integrate, for the first time, a fractal antenna array and an integrated grooved Fresnel lens. The lens has been realized in a high dielectric medium that makes it highly compact in size, while providing considerable gain enhancement. The antenna front end exhibits a size reduction of more than 80% as compared to the conventional designs reported for this band. Moreover, it demonstrates a bandwidth of 8% with an overall gain of 15 dB which is quite suitable for typical radar communication range. The low-cost, high performance, compactness and robustness of the design makes it highly suitable for automotive radar applications.