With driver and passenger safety on the line, vehicles need high-performance systems that never compromise. That’s why advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) have become a co-ilot in modern car architecture, safely guiding the journey to every destination.
Central to ADAS is radar technology. Whether it’s emergency braking in a split second or adaptive cruise control to ease a highway drive, radar provides the precision and reliability that vehicles, drivers and passengers count on. While cameras or LiDAR can often falter against the elements, radars excel no matter the forecast – snow, rain, or fog.
The road ahead relies on radar
Radar technology is the primary sensing modality driving us toward the future of smarter and more autonomous vehicles. Automotive radar is projected to grow from $5.36 billion in 2025 to $22.83 billion by 2032, a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent. According to McKinsey & Company, the radar sensor market is also growing by 13 percent and is likely to be the largest sensor market in 2030 with a market size of $14 billion.
This market momentum reflects true demand, fueled by global safety regulations, new car assessment programs and consumer expectations for confidence. Today’s vehicles are equipped with at least five radar sensors – four at the corners and one front facing. Future next-generation vehicles are expected to have double the number of radar sensors to give drivers a 360-degree view of the road.
As cars become more autonomous, radar systems need to do more than just sense—they must interpret and act on information in real time. That’s where physical AI comes in. By combining advanced radar chips with physical AI, GF enables radar systems to sense, think, act and communicate. This means smarter, faster decisions on the road, better safety, and technology that adapts to changing environments.
From chip to motion: How GF radar powers performance
GlobalFoundries (GF) has made radar one of its core technology areas, offering silicon-proven IP, turnkey reference designs and advanced process technologies that help chip designers accelerate time-to-market.
GF’s flagship 22FDX® radar technology delivers higher resolution, lower latency, better thermal management and a longer range than current radar systems. By integrating RF, analog and digital blocks on the same die, the 22FDX® platform reduces system cost while enabling unprecedented radar performance. GF solutions power the full spectrum of radar – from compact, single-chip short- and mid-range radars to complex multi-chip imaging radar.
In fact, using GF’s 22FDX® technology, Arbe Robotics became the first in the world to show real-time 1 degree resolution, providing a real-time 4D picture of the environment. As the future of autonomous driving approaches, 360° vision around the car is a growing demand and GF provides the superior performance needed to increase range and improve resolution for these applications. Collaborations with other automotive leaders including indie Semiconductor and Bosch highlight how GF’s technology is advancing the intelligence and safety of vehicles.
Why GF sets the standard for automotive safety
GF radar solutions deliver key benefits that differentiate them from legacy technologies such as 28nm bulk CMOS and competing 16nm FinFET technologies:
- Range and accuracy: 22FDX® integrates more RF channels and digital processing into a smaller surface, improving sensitivity, efficiency, and resolution while shrinking chip area by up to 20 percent.
- Thermal management: With up to 50% high power-added efficiency compared to competing technologies, 22FDX® sensors avoid performance degradation associated with high power consumption at elevated temperatures and achieve a Grade 1 rating for automotive thermal reliability.
- Integrated processing: By enabling more processing on a single SoC, GF reduces power and silicon costs while delivering the smallest sensor size, maximum performance and highly integrated solution. With automotive radar expected to grow over the next decade, this single-chip SoC approach is increasingly preferred by Tier 1s and OEMs, offering a better balance of performance, features and cost, compared to traditional 28 nm bulk CMOS and 16nm FinFET technologies.
- Faster design cycles: GF’s technology, focused on product differentiation, lower costs, faster time-to-market, and high performance. Its lower sensitivity to layout effects, combined with silicon-proven reference designs, IP, and turnkey services, enables efficient, low-risk development of RF design.
- Automotive Grade 1 production: GF’s Fab 1 facility in Dresden, Germany – the heart of the automotive industry – provides Grade 1 volume production near key automotive hubs, ensuring a reliable, geopolitically stable supply chain that ensures resilience.
Advancing the safety of tomorrow’s vehicles, today
By making radar design simple, GF is empowering established automakers and new players alike to unlock the full potential of radar, making it easier to deliver disruptive solutions that redefine what automotive safety means. As vehicles evolve toward higher levels of autonomy, radar will play an even greater role, integrating with other sensor technologies including cameras and LiDAR to create a comprehensive, reliable perception of a vehicle’s surroundings.
In our next blog, we’ll explore how camera and LiDAR technologies complement radar, creating a more robust safety system in cars that ensure no blind spots remain.