COMPANY CHARACTERISTICS
INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE
Today, over 170 employees and radar experts build the strong team of smartmicro. Most of our staff work at the German headquarters in Braunschweig, while international offices are located in UK, US, Canada, and China.
EXCELLENT NETWORK
We closely cooperate with the Technical Universities in Braunschweig and Hamburg-Harburg as well as excellence partners in Germany and worldwide to enable and improve the development of radar processors, high-performance antenna technology, RFICs and RF modules.
GLOBAL REPUTATION
We have been working for the largest automotive 1st tier suppliers, typically having $1bn revenue and more, to develop mass production sensors which are then manufactured by our customers. Today, smartmicro is also the most recommended radar sensor partner for traffic system providers and integrators worldwide.
MODERN FACILITIES
Our modern smartmicro facilities are located close to the Braunschweig research airport and include 4000m² office and lab space, as well as another 2250m² test field and production lab. The new smartmicro storage facility is three stories high and spreads over 1000m². The construction of the new building no. 4 is already planned.
MANUFACTURING FACILITIES
We manufacture tens of thousands of sensors per year by in-house production – from mass products to prototypes. At smartmicro we perform high precision automated SMT, sensor assembly and fully automated end-of-line test.
ISO CERTIFICATION
Our quality management for design, development, production and sales is certified according to ISO9001. We ensure highest standards in hardware and software quality and many of our products are compliant to different levels of ISO26262.
We are proud of our history
OUR COMPETENCES
At smartmicro, we design, develop and manufacture sensors for traffic management and automotive industries. For more than 24 years we have been the leading specialist in high performance detection technology.
OUR VALUES
Our fundamental motivation for providing highest performance and highest quality automotive and traffic management sensors is to make roads safer, to optimize traffic flow for reduced travel times and to enable greener, smarter cities. At smartmicro we stand for innovation, precision, passion and loyalty.
❝ With our innovative high performance
and high quality sensors we aim
for a safer, greener and smarter future.❞
PROF. DR. RER. NAT.
HERMANN ROHLING
Senior Vice President
Strategy Director
DR.-ING. RALPH MENDE
Chief Executive Officer
Managing Director
THE SMARTMICRO FOUNDERS
Prof. Dr. Hermann Rohling and Dr. Ralph Mende founded smartmicro in 1997 – as a spin-off of the Institute for Communications Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig.
Prof. Hermann Rohling recently retired from being Vice President and Head of the Communications Department of the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH), while Dr. Ralph Mende is the Managing Director of smartmicro.
our expertise
RADAR SYSTEM DESIGN
- Analysis of functional requirements
- Design, development and evaluation of antennas
- System design of transmit waveform and digital signal processing software
- Design and development of RF- and DSP modules
- Definition of test specifications and compliance testing
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
- High volume automotive and medium volume non-automotive product development
- Field-testing and qualification
- Automated end-of-line testing
- Quality and safety compliances
- SPICE and ASIL compliance
- Cost-down engineering
RADAR SIGNAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE
- V-model software development
- Software design tools
- Specification/traceability tools
- Version control/issue tracking
- Code analysis, integrity and module testing
EMBEDDED SOFTWARE
- Efficient implementation of radar algorithms
- Special embedded know-how for dedicated auto-radar multi-core processors including h/w accelerators
- DSP/MCU emulating, tracing, signal analysis
- Communication software for RS485, CAN(FD), Flexray and Ethernet stacks
- Embedded Linux, RTOS
CIRCUIT DESIGN
- Digital and RF schematics design
- Latest automotive RFIC solutions, all-CMOS
- PCB layout and housing/radome CAD
- In-house prototype assembly and testing
APPLICATION/FUNCTION DEVELOPMENT
- Automotive and traffic sensors
- Operation of multiple sensors in networks, sensor fusion
- Interference avoidance and suppression
- Flexible communication interfaces
RADAR RF MODULE DESIGN
- Power budget, signal chain, quality and bandwidth design
- Signal sources, mixers, filters and amplifiers design
- RFIC to antenna and digital i/f design
- RF performance analysis
RADAR ANTENNA DESIGN
- Array antennas, series arrays and waveguide antennas
- Slot coupled and thru-fed antennas
- Azimuth and elevation measurement
- Digital beam forming, MIMO and virtual arrays
- Radome design and bumper distortion compensation
SPECIAL KNOW-HOW
BEST SENSOR QUALITY THROUGH AUTOMATED END OF LINE CALIBRATION
All our sensors undergo a sophisticated, fully automated end-of-line calibration before they are shipped and deployed around the world. A robot performs very precise azimuth and elevation measurement, accurate range measurement, and certifies speed measurement accuracy. At highest working speed more than 1.000 parameters are tested, ensuring an extensive performance check against the datasheet. This replaces the former semi-manual calibration process and relieves our smartmicro team from manual handling steps.
The perfect reproducibility of the test and calibration process is also used for automotive mass production. Our sensors maintain best accuracy by means of built-in self-calibration functions throughout their entire design life.
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SMARTMICRO FACILITIES
ANTENNA MEASUREMENT CHAMBERS
smartmicro operates one of the largest anechoic chambers in northern Germany with dimensions of 18 x 6 x 5m. It features a turntable for antenna azimuth and elevation measurements. In this chamber, sensors can be tested from -40 to +85°C. Five smaller anechoic chambers are available for development and production. Calibrated target simulators are used to create echoes from 20m to 20km range, any speed and a wide range of amplitudes. Precision pan-tilt suspensions enable a very precise antenna characterization.
RF DEVELOPMENT AND MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT
Signal source, spectrum and network analyzers, signal generators, power meters and other calibrated RF measurement equipment, calibrated antennae, calibrated reflectors are running in smartmicro labs. We use ADS Momentum, Empire (TM) and other design software. Instruments are available for frequencies of up to 110GHz, and up to 4GHz at 79GHz for radar bandwidths.
SENSOR QUALIFICATION LAB
The smartmicro sensor qualification lab allows long-term testing of products, especially High Temperature Operating Life (HTOL), accelerated aging etc. Interface tests are run for CAN(FD), Ethernet, relay and LED drivers.
ANGLE MEASUREMENT AND DISTORTION TEST STAND
smartmicro has an angle measurement and distortion test stand for the measurement of the exact behavior of sensors mounted behind plastic parts, which measure azimuth and elevation. Testing is possible with sensors attached to the final production location on a vehicle, hidden behind a bumper. This allows very precise antenna distortion behavior characterization. Testing is possible for all types of cars equipped with radars.
200M² AUTOMOTIVE TEST HALL
The smartmicro vehicle test hall is located adjacent to the radar test lab. Engineers may test in the lab and then take a vehicle for road tests. Fitting, aligning and calibrating radars on test cars is possible. Moreover, automotive OEM's end-of-line test setups are tested here.
EMC, TEMPERATURE AND CLIMATIC TEST CHAMBERS
For the pre-qualification of sensors, manual and automated sensor test and qualification is possible in smartmicro facilities for radiated and conducted emissions, power supply testing, temperature, humidity and IP test cases.
CURRENT JOB OPENINGS
Partners & Memberships
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