NXP Semiconductors is not letting 2024 go out quietly, announcing an auto tech acquisition and engaging with a new radar sensing partner in what is usually a quiet week before a holiday break for many.
First up, the Dutch chip giant unveiled a definitive agreement to acquire San Jose, California-based Aviva Links, a much-hyped enabler of in-vehicle connectivity, for $242.5 million. Aviva Links is known for connectivity compliant with the Automotive SerDes Alliance (ASA) for software-defined vehicle applications. NXP is a founding member of the ASA.
The technology offered by Aviva Links supports SerDes point-to-point (ASA-ML) and Ethernet-based connectivity (ASA-MLE) with data rates up to 16 Gbps for asymmetric camera and display networks in vehicles. Aviva Links has secured design wins at two major automotive OEMs and is sampling its devices to various OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers.
The acquisition news landed the same day that South Korean radar technology start-up bitsensing announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NXP that also has implications in automotive and other markets.The agreement will see the two companies focus on developing next-generation radar systems for the automotive, smart cities, robotics, and healthcare markets, among others.
The partnership news follows bitsensing’s announcement earlier this year that it had closed a $25 million funding round.
A statement from bitsensing explained that the collaboration matched NXP’s own “advanced radar chipsets with bitsensing’s innovation in radar technology and software. bitsensing will leverage their deep expertise of NXP’s radar chipsets to develop next-generation radar solutions, supporting customers with pre-development and accelerating the overall development time. Lead customers have already started evaluation with pre-developed samples based on NXP’s SAF85xx automotive radar one-chip family.”
Specifically, the offerings developed using NXP chipsets for 4D Imaging Radar, Front Radar and Corner Radar are sampling. They address Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles (AV), Traffic Insight Monitoring Sensor (TIMOS) for smart city traffic monitoring radar for the connected urban environment, and the Wellness Radar for sleep monitoring applications.
“NXP is excited to partner with bitsensing to bring radar systems that can serve automotive and industrial applications”, says Karthik Ramesh, Marketing Director at NXP. “NXP’s market leading radar chipsets, combined with bitsensing’s radar system competence, will enable faster development of scalable radar solutions and accelerate deployment of radar systems by OEMs”.
“This collaboration with NXP allows us to offer a truly scalable radar solution, which will be a game-changer across all the industries we collectively serve,” said Jae-Eun Lee, CEO of bitsensing. “By combining our radar technology with NXP’s leading radar chipsets, we’re pushing forward the boundaries of connectivity and the full potential of our radar systems to deliver on the future of autonomy, and beyond.”