Radar is no longer just for the road ahead — it’s reshaping the in-cabin experience too. Ahead of InCabin Europe 2025, we spoke with Yaohui Liu, EMEA FAE & Marketing Manager at Calterah Semiconductor Technology, about how Calterah is advancing radar SoCs for occupant monitoring, introducing UWB innovation, and addressing the challenges of safety, comfort, and convenience inside the vehicle. Read the full blog below.
Mr. Yaohui Liu is a semiconductor veteran with over 20 years of experience in engineering and technical customer support, including more than 17 years working closely with OEMs and tier-1 suppliers across automotive, industrial, and communication sectors. His background spans a range of technologies, including microcontrollers, DSPs, millimeter Wave radar, and UWB systems, with a focus on embedded solutions for ADAS, in-cabin sensing, and wireless connectivity.
Currently at Calterah, Yaohui supports the development and application of UWB radar SoCs, contributing to projects in both in-cabin monitoring and digital key systems. His work involves bridging technical implementation with real-world customer needs, helping to bring reliable, user-oriented features to market. With a hands-on approach and a focus on collaboration, Yaohui continues to explore how technologies like UWB can quietly improve comfort, safety, and convenience in the vehicle environment.
Calterah has become well known for its CMOS radar technology. What’s new in your latest generation of imaging radar, and how are you tackling common challenges like range limitations, resolution, and interference from other sensors?
In the recent architectures Calterah leverages improved RF front-end sensitivity, higher output power efficiency, and advanced Radar Signal Processor (RSP) 2.0 to enable detection of objects at longer distances while maintaining accuracy. This includes higher MIMO antenna support with innovative multi-chip cascading. We are leveraging the powerful RSP 2.0, adaptive waveform modulation, dynamic frequency hopping, and advanced filtering in our designs. AI/ML-based interference detection and suppression algorithms are also becoming more common to maintain measurement integrity.
The industry keeps talking about multi-modal sensing and sensor fusion. How is Calterah combining radar data with cameras, LiDAR, or other sensors to build a more complete picture of the driving environment? And what role does AI play in making that work in real time?
Calterah’s radar SoCs, including the Alps-Pro and Andes series, provide high-resolution data with a versatile interface that supports flexible sensor fusion architectures, from range-Doppler maps to point-cloud features. Integrated on-chip AI enables real-time object detection, classification, and tracking directly within the radar, minimizing latency and power consumption. Additionally, Calterah SoCs offer high-speed data links, allowing OEMs to implement more centralized fusion processing if desired. Together, these capabilities provide a robust and scalable foundation for advanced sensor fusion in ADAS and autonomous driving applications.
As ADAS features get more complex, functional safety is under the spotlight. How do you approach ISO 26262 compliance for radar systems, and what are the biggest lessons you’ve learned about designing radar for safety-critical applications?
Functional safety is critical for millimeter-wave radar, especially since these systems are directly tied to driving safety. We’ve always taken compliance very seriously. In fact, even before the official release of ISO 26262:2018, we were already using ISO/PAS 19451-1 as a guideline for our safety development process. Back in 2011, our first-generation SoC, called Alps, became the first chip in China to be fully compliant with ISO 26262 and certified by an independent third party. Through years of customer collaboration, we have learned that effective safety mechanisms must deliver high reliability while minimizing performance overhead. That’s important because ADAS applications are getting more complex, with heavier algorithm workloads and more demanding scenarios. To better support OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers, we offer not only safe SoCs but also safety packages, which include built-in fault-injection interfaces for verification, ISO 26262 ASIL-B compliant software modules like MCAL (Microcontroller Abstraction Layer) and CDD (Complex Device Driver), as well as supporting toolchains. In this way, our customers can build safety into their system designs more efficiently.
Radar is often praised for its reliability in bad weather. Can you share any recent testing insights on how your radar systems perform in tough conditions like heavy rain, fog, or low-light scenarios?
Radar is indeed a much more robust sensor compared to cameras and LiDAR in bad weather. For a 77 GHz radar system, the main effect resulting from a heavy rain, for example, is some signal attenuation. The literature shows that the signal attenuation is around 0.4 dB/km in a light rain and up to about 10 dB/km in extreme conditions. So short- and mid-range detection remains reliable. Our advanced radar signal processing can also compensate for some of the link budget loss. In fog or road spray, attenuation is negligible compared to optical sensors, which is why radar continues to provide stable tracking when visibility is poor. Low-light conditions or tunnel transitions are also no issue, since radar is independent of ambient lighting. We validate this in scenarios like tunnel portals on intercity expressways, where cameras struggle with glare and rapid luminance change. Overall, our testing in local conditions, from typhoon downpours on elevated ring roads in Shanghai to dense fog near the ports, shows radar maintains reliable detection and tracking where other sensors face significant challenges.
We’re also seeing a big push for in-cabin radar for features like child presence detection and occupant monitoring. How is Calterah adapting its radar technology for interior sensing, and what technical challenges do you have to solve to make it both accurate and practical?
To make in-cabin sensing both accurate and practical, Calterah tackles several key challenges: detecting occupants, including infants hidden under blankets or in rear corners; avoiding false alarms from benign motion or vehicle vibrations; fitting a single sensor into tight spaces like the B-pillar or roof while covering the entire cabin; and keeping power consumption low for always-on operation. Our solution is radar-centric, combining a 6T6R radar SoC with Antenna-in-Package hardware and a compact, quantized TinyML convolutional neural network (CNN) running directly on-chip, delivering high-resolution, reliable detection and classification in real time without compromising integration or energy efficiency. Besides this radar-based solution, Calterah can also provide a communication system based solution for the in-cabin sensing, which we are happy to introduce to AutoSens visitors this year.
Looking ahead to 2030, with Vision Zero and evolving NCAP protocols driving safety expectations, How do you see radar technology evolving over the next five years, and where does Calterah fit in shaping the next generation of sensing systems?
Radar is set to become even more central to vehicle safety over the next five years as Vision Zero goals and evolving NCAP/NCAP-like requirements push OEMs to improved perception for vulnerable road users and complex urban scenarios. Imaging radars with advanced MIMO, more virtual channels, finer angular resolution will be widely adopted to improve object discrimination and classification. More on-chip signal processing and ML/AI for clutter suppression, classification, and sensor-fusion weighting will be integrated into radar SoCs to meet stricter test scenarios and reduce false positives. As vehicle safety targets tighten, radar vendors will need proven ASIL workflows, verification interfaces, and testability features built into chips and platforms. Calterah has already released a wide mmWave portfolio (77/79 GHz and 60 GHz SoCs) and ramped up large production volumes, placing it well to supply the multi-radar suites OEMs will need. By 2030, Calterah’s continuous innovation in the area of Radiator on Package, Antenna in Package, TinyML-based AI, and safety-centric hardware position it to lead the evolution of cost-effective, high-performance, safety-verified radar systems for meeting Vision Zero and NCAP targets.
You’ll be at InCabin Europe 2025 this September. What can attendees expect from Calterah at the event, and why is InCabin an important platform for sharing your latest innovations with the industry?
This year at AutoSens and InCabin Europe, we are proud to introduce our new Dubhe product series, the world’s first IEEE 802.15.4ab-compliant UWB SoCs. Unlike conventional UWB chips limited to digital key and access functionality, Dubhe enables comprehensive in-cabin sensing, supporting applications ranging from secure digital keys to intrusion detection and child presence monitoring. This launch coincides with a significant expansion of Calterah’s European presence, including the opening of our Munich office and the establishment of a dedicated local team, underscoring our commitment to closer collaboration with OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers in the region. AutoSens Europe offers an ideal platform to amplify this footprint, bringing together engineers, decision-makers, and technology leaders, and allowing us to showcase innovations like Dubhe directly to the stakeholders who drive adoption.
From child presence detection to secure digital keys, Calterah is redefining how radar and UWB technologies contribute to smarter, safer in-cabin environments. With the launch of the new Dubhe series and a growing presence in Europe, Calterah is positioned at the forefront of interior sensing innovation. Attendees at InCabin Europe 2025 will have a unique chance to see these solutions in action and engage with the team shaping the future of in-vehicle safety and comfort.
Interested in exterior sensing technology?
With a pass to InCabin Europe, you’ll also get full access to our co-located sister event, AutoSens. Take a look at the leading line-up of Speakers at AutoSens Europe here >>
