TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to display in automotive, specifically, this disclosure relates to an automotive glazing with system capable of radio detection and ranging (RADAR). More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an automotive glazing having RADAR units and plurality of antenna units configured to various automotive based applications.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed disclosure, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

[0003] It is known to one skilled in the art that glazing refers to any and all the glass or similar material within a structure or the installation of any piece of glass or the similar material within a sash or frame. The glass windows of an automobile are referred to as glazing. For laminated glazing, two or more layers of glass or a similar material, are fused together with an interlayer in the middle. The fusion is completed with pressure and heat and it prevents the sheets of glass or the similar material from breaking. While some pieces of glass or the similar material might end up breaking into larger pieces, those pieces will stay together with the help of the interlayer, making it shatterproof. Further existent in the art are automotive plastic based glazing such as pillar parts of the vehicle.

[0004] There are solutions based on LiDar or camera based object detection. However, it is seen that those are affected by presence of fog, dust or rain as the optical properties are significantly compromised in these environments. Radio frequency based units are able function better in detrimental weather or road conditions due to RF signal transparency. RADAR (or simply radar) is widely used for various automotive applications. Radar system is essentially needed to identify the obstacle and the objects nearby the vehicle in nanoseconds scale of time as the electromagnetic waves travel with speed of light. Radar units employed in a windshield helps in collision avoidance, emergency braking and similarly, in quarterlite, backlite, sidelite, sunroof helps in parking assistance, blind spot detection, track change warning, child detection inside car, seat belt violation and the like.

[0005] Reference is made to W02020/008720 Al that discloses a simple configuration to prevent radar losses resulting from a windshield, in a vehicle, that uses laminated glass. In the disclosed solution, an emission unit of an antenna is disposed inside a vehicle windshield formed of a plurality of layers. The emission unit radiates electric waves and receives reflected waves, from among the radiated electric waves, reflected by an object. A ranging information generation unit is connected to the emission unit. The ranging information generation unit measures the distance to the object and generates ranging information on the basis of the radiated electric waves and the reflected waves from the object.

[0006] Another reference is made to W02017081052A1 that discloses a vehicle antenna disc for operating a toll payment system. The vehicle antenna disc comprises a disc, a first receiver for receiving a first signal from a toll booth transmitter, a signal converter for converting the first signal into a second signal and for converting a third signal into a fourth signal, a second transmitter for transmitting the second signal to a mobile radio device, a second receiver for receiving the third signal from the mobile radio device, a first transmitter for transmitting the fourth signal to a toll booth receiver. The receiver and the transmitter are designed for receiving and transmitting short-range radio signals. [0007] Yet another reference is made to US20170274832 that discloses a windshield including a radar that detects an object around the radar with transmitted and received radio waves in a millimeter band and a radar window on which at least a portion of the radio waves is incident. The windshield includes a windshield main body including a single glass layer or at least one glass layer on which a resin layer is laminated. Both of the windshield main body and the radar window are plate-shaped. An area of the radar window is smaller than an area of the windshield main body. A dielectric constant of the radar window is smaller than a dielectric constant of the glass layer. At least a portion of a side surface connecting an outer surface and an inner surface of the radar window is in contact with a side surface connecting an outer surface and an inner surface of the windshield main body.

[0008] In view of the known solutions, it is found that the automotive radar is placed on the car body and thereby not able to utilize some of the benefits of a glazing based system, like, bi-directional applications or sensing of vehicle interiors. Additionally, there are lot of metallic interference from vehicle body, if radar is placed in vehicle body. Conventionally, the radar units are often placed in the bumper region. This however gets affected by the dust and mud accumulation on surface over time. The presence of moisture and mud can affect the effectiveness of the radar module. Some efforts have been made in having the antenna emission unit in the vehicle windshield, but however, in such cases the radar unit need to be located outside the glazing, which comes with the additional usage of connectors and connection lines and may involve signal losses as well. In the light of the prior art solutions disclosed hitherto, there exists a need for an improved radar system being integrated within the glazing of a vehicle. None of the prior art solutions disclose of integrating radar unit and multiple antenna within glazing unit for enabling better coverage and the antenna working in tandem is not provided in the prior art. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0009] An object of the present invention is to provide an automotive glazing with radar unit overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art.

[0010] Another object of the present invention is to provide an automotive glazing having integrated radar unit and one or more antenna units within glazing.

[0011] Still further object of the present invention is to provide an automotive glazing with radar unit having minimum interference with the metallic body of the vehicle.

[0012] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an automotive glazing having multi-frequency and wide band antenna configurations for optimizing the space and number of antennas for a radar system.

[0013] These and other objects of the invention are achieved by the following aspects of the invention. The following disclosure presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This presents some concept of the invention in a simplified form to a more detailed description of the invention presented later. It is a comprehensive summary of the disclosure and it is not an extensive overview of the present invention. The intend of this summary is to provide a fundamental understanding of some of the aspects of the present invention.

[0014] In an aspect of the invention is disclosed an automotive glazing with integrated radar unit. Said automotive glazing comprises at least one substrate of glass or polymer; at least one radar unit partially or completely disposed within the glazing; one or more antenna units disposed on said substrate of the glazing. The at least one radar unit is configured to communicate with said one or more antenna units and function with minimum signal loss and the radar unit and the one or more antenna units are integrated in the glazing by means of surface mounting and/or in cut-outs on the substrate of the glazing. [0015] In another aspect of the invention is disclosed a system for radio detection and ranging (radar) in a vehicle. The system comprises at least one automotive glazing having at least one substrate of glass or polymer, at least one radar unit partially or completely disposed within the glazing, one or more antenna units disposed on said substrate, wherein the at least one radar unit is configured to communicate with said one or more antenna units and function with minimum signal loss, such that said radar unit and the one or more antenna units are integrated in the glazing. The system further comprises a control unit located outside the glazing, operably coupled with the radar unit and the one or more antenna units for detection of objects for at least being applied for blind spot detection, forward and rear collision, parking assistance, lane change and adaptive cruise control, wherein the location of said one or more antenna units in the glazing is dependent on one of said applications.

[0016] With the disclosed solution of radar system having radar unit and antenna in glazing is capable of providing lower attenuation of the radar signal. The curved profile of the glazing facilitates in achieving a wider coverage by using distributed radar antenna across the curvature of the glazing. The solution provides means to cover an entire region around the vehicle with minimum number of radar antennas.

[0017] The significant features of the present invention and the advantages of the same will be apparent to a person skilled in the art from the detailed description that follows in conjunction with the annexed drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

[0018] The following briefly describes the accompanying drawings, illustrating the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, for assisting the understanding of a person skilled in the art to comprehend the invention. It would be apparent that the accompanying drawings in the following description merely show some embodiments of the present invention, and persons skilled in the art can derive other drawings from the accompanying drawings without deviating from the scope of the disclosure.

[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the automotive glazing with a radar unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0020] FIG. 2 illustrates an exploded view of the automotive glazing 100, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 300, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 400, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0023] FIG. 5 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 500 with an interlayer 103, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0024] FIG. 6 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 600 with an interlayer 103, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0025] FIG. 7 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 700 with an interlayer 103, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0026] FIG. 8 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 800 with an interlayer 103, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0027] FIG. 9 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 900 with an interlayer 103, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0028] FIG. 10 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 1000 with an interlayer 103, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0029] FIG. 11 illustrates the wider coverage range obtained by the automotive glazing with a radar unit and antennas in automotive glazing, in accordance with an embodiment; [0030] FIG. 12 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 1200 with integrated radar unit, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0031] FIG. 13 illustrates a configuration of an automotive glazing 1300 with antennas, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0032] FIG. 14 illustrates an architecture of a system of automotive glazing having integrated radar unit, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0033] FIG. 15 illustrates the system of automotive glazing having integrated radar unit, in accordance with an embodiment;

[0034] FIG. 16 illustrates an automotive glazing having integrated radar unit and PDLC, in accordance with an embodiment; and

[0035] FIG. 17 illustrates an automotive glazing having integrated radar unit, PDLC and heating grid, in accordance with an embodiment.

[0036] Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] The present disclosure is now discussed in more detail referring to the drawings that accompany the present application. It would be appreciated by a skilled person that this description to assist the understanding of the invention but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.

[0038] The terms and words used in the following description are not limited to the bibliographical meanings and the same are used to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the terms/phrases are to be read in the context of the disclosure and not in isolation. Additionally, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0039] Automotive radars in general are used to detect the speed and range of objects in the vicinity of the car. An automotive radar consists of at least a transmitter and a receiver. The various embodiments of the present invention are directed at an automotive glazing having an integrated radio frequency detection and ranging system with a radar unit within the glazing and further having one or more antenna units configured to enable different applications. Generally, a radar unit or system may comprise a transmitter which is powered by amplifier signals that are generated here using a waveform generator, multiple waveguides capable of facilitating transmission of radar signals, antenna configured to transfer the transmitter energy to signals in space, a receiver capable of being used for detection and capture of signals, and a processing unit which uses captured signals and their properties to derive detection, ranging and other useful information. In an exemplary implementation of the present invention, said radar unit may be a radar on chip and may comprise a receiver, a transmitter, a transceiver, scanner/antenna, an indicator, and the like. Said radar unit is adapted to be embedded in a cut-out of the substrate of the glazing. The integration of radar on chip in glazing is a challenge given the thickness restriction of the substrates of the glazing. Further, in an embodiment of the present invention is included multiple antenna being disposed all across the vehicle for enabling better coverage and facilitating the working of the same in tandem for multiple applications. Furthermore, in a vehicle, multiple radar units may be integrated in one or more glazing of the vehicle and the same may be connected to a control unit for enabling specific applications. In an implementation of the present invention, there may be an intermediate data acquisition unit or a DAQ for collecting the data from the various radar units. The one or more radar units may be configured to a control unit directly or via the DAQ to the control unit. The control unit may be the electronic control unit of the vehicle (ECU). [0040] In an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed an automotive glazing (100) with radar units embedded therein. The automotive glazing may include a first substrate of glass or polymer (101). Said automotive glazing comprises a radar unit (110) partially or completely disposed within the glazing. The glazing includes one or more antenna units (111), capable of being working in association with the radar unit

(110), disposed on said glass or polymer substrate (101). Reference is made to FIG. 1 that shows a basic schematic representation of the radar unit (110) and the antenna units

(111) in a glazing. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is disclosed a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna being disposed on the glazing, and said antenna units (111) being communicably coupled with the integrated radar unit (110). The at least one radar unit is configured to communicate with said one or more antenna units and is configured to function with minimum signal loss. Referring to FIG. 2, at least a portion of the radar chip (110) or the one or more antenna units (111) may be aligned with the cut-out on the first substrate of the glazing. The antenna unit or the antenna element on the glazing are coupled with radar unit by way of connecting cables. The antenna units and the flat cable connector may be non-transparent or transparent. The instances of making the antenna units or the connectors transparent are by way of using inherently transparent conductive material or using the conducting material into thin line based design. The automotive glazing unit as per the present invention includes the integrated radar unit and one or more antenna units within the glazing unit itself. A schematic representation of the same is provided in FIG. 1 where the radar on chip (radar unit 110 having transmitter, receiver or transceiver), transmitting antenna (I l la) and the receiving antenna (11 lb) are all integrated within the glazing unit itself. This provides the technical benefit of having better coverage and the antenna units working in tandem.

[0041] In conventional solutions, while using separated antennas from the radar chip, it has been observed that there are signal attenuation and performance loss. This may be attributed to such separated antennas requiring additional connectors and transmission lines. In an implementation of the invention, the radar system may be integrated to the antenna in a single unit configuration (for example and not limited to a radar on chip). Consequently, with such implementation, these losses may be minimized as shown in the various configurations depicted in FIGs. 3-10. FIGs. 3-10 depict the various exemplary embodiments of partially or completely enclosing a radar unit within a glazing structure. The embedding may be performed in a single glazing having a substrate of glass or polymer only or may be performed in laminated glazing with at least a first substrate of glass or polymer and a second substrate of glass or polymer being sandwiched together with an interlayer. In the different configurations shown in the figure, the antenna may be printed directly on glass and the chip may be bonded on top of the same. The two step process reduces the need for embedding the chip during the glass bending process which are performed at high temperatures (-600 deg C). It also allows the user to replace the radar chip based on need of repair or reprogramming.

[0042] Configurations of FIGs. 3 and 4 depicts the antenna unit and the radar unit being disposed on single glazing. The antenna may be printed on the glass substrate (101) and the radar unit (110) may be embedded in a cut-out on the substrate of the glazing.

[0043] Configurations of FIG. 5-8 discloses the various embodiments of the present invention, in which the antenna unit (111) and the radar unit (110) are disposed on the different substrates of the laminated glazing. In an implementation, the laminated structure may include at least two glass substrates (101, 102) sandwiched by an interlayer (103) such as Polyvinyl butyral (PVB). The various configurations depict the antenna unit and the radar unit being located in one of the substrate of the glazing or the arrangement of the antenna unit and the radar unit may extend to the multiple substrates of the glazing. The antenna unit and the radar unit may be embedded within the glazing by way of bonding layer according to an implementation. [0044] In another implementation of the present invention is disclosed a radar unit being integrated to a glazing in which said radar unit being integrated to the adhesive region of the glazing. This configuration helps in utilizing the space in the existing fixed glazing of a vehicle. The space within the glazing unit may be limited by the thickness of the spacer units. In another implementation is disclosed that the radar chip and/or the one or more antenna units may be embedded within the encapsulation of the glazing unit. As depicted in FIGs. 9-10, the radar system in such an encapsulation may be disposed in the encapsulate (902) with either both the radar unit (110) and one or more antennas (111) are disposed on the encapsulate (902) or just the radar unit being disposed on the encapsulate (902). The radar unit (110) may be disposed at any part of the glazing inclusive of and not limited to the black ceramic region. Radar unit (such as a radar on chip) and the antenna may be integrated in the encapsulation by way of cut-out being provided in the encapsulation and or black ceramic region to allow better transmission. Usually encapsulated glazing is provided in scenario where we have single substrate based glazing (like quaterlite for example). It would be appreciated by one skilled in the art that configuration 7a and 7b are provided by way of enhancing the understanding of the skilled person and to render an explanation on how to use the space for arranging the antenna units and the radar unit for application specific cases. The automotive glazing unit as depicted by the various configurations includes the integrated radar unit and one or more antenna units within the glazing unit itself. This provides the technical benefit of having better coverage and the antenna units working in tandem.

[0045] Reference is made to FIGs. 3-8 that depicts the different instances in which the antenna is disposed on the substrate of the glazing along with the radar unit. In an implementation of the present invention, one instance depicts the inclusion of the antenna unit and the radar unit within the glazing, in which the radar unit (110) may be included by way of a cut-out (for example configuration of FIG. 3) or by of surface mounting. In an implementation of the present invention, the radar unit (110) may be embedded using a bonding layer which would further be integrated into a glazing (reference is made to configuration of FIG. 7). Bonding layer could be the interlayer (like the PVB layer), which could be used to embed the radar on chip during the lamination process. In this case, where the bonding layer is the interlayer, the radar chip can be protected by a thermal barrier. In a preferred embodiment, the radar unit (110) and the antenna (111) may be disposed in cut-out and/or sections of the substrates of the glazing. The antenna signal passes through either only one layer of the substrate or none of the layers of the glazing. This advantageously provides lower attenuation of the radar signal. To further supplement the understanding of a skilled person, a specific scenario may be regarded for computing the attenuation. The attenuation loss for a particular material depends on the frequency, f (=co / 2J where co is angular frequency) of the wave, the di-electric constant, e, and di-electric loss constant, s of the material:

[0046] In that case, attenuation constant, a, is given as:

[0047] Attenuation constant is represented as dB/m by using a multiplication factor 8.68. Consequently, the effective attenuation through a glass layer (an instance if the substrate is glass) is dependent on the thickness, the radio frequency of the wave and the dielectric values of the material. If the frequency and operating temperature of the radio frequency transmission are constant, the dielectric values, and the permeability will remain constant. This makes the attenuation directly dependent on the thickness of substrate.

[0048] To further supplement the understanding, again glass as an example of the substrate of the glazing is considered. Glass material would have di-electric constant, e, of 7, di-electric loss constant, s, 0.07, loss tangent as 0.01, permeability as (4.78x (10 ^A -5)) H/m and frequency the wave as 10GHz. The attenuation values for a radar unit integrated in glass using the above indicated equation are computed and recorded as in the following table:

Table 1 : Attenuation values for different configurations

[0049] As would be evidenced, without using a cut out in the glass substrate in a laminated glass, it can result in a 2-fold reduction in resource usage including easy integration to vehicle frame and reduced chip to antenna distance reduces noise and power needed. As is established, configurations 2, 4a or 4b are preferred, since they have 0 dB attenuation.

[0050] In an embodiment of the present invention, the glazing has a curved profile. This advantageously impacts in achieving a wider coverage by using distributed radar antenna (111) across the curvature of the glazing. Reference is made to FIG. 11 of the present invention that depicts the wider coverage achieved due to the curved profile of the glazing. Same number of radar antennas are embedded in flat glass and also in curved glass, however, the coverage obtained from the curved glass (BCc ) is greater than the coverage obtained from flat glass (BCF). AS depicted in FIG. 11, the curvature of the glass creates a tilt of 5 in each subsequent radar antenna with beam angle of 0. For 3 antennas in a flat substrate as shown in the referred figure, the effective beam coverage at maximum radii, r is BCF. For 3 antennas in a curved substrate as shown in the referred figure, the effective beam coverage at maximum radii, r is BCc. The distance between the antenna axis increases with distance from antenna in a curved glass as would be evidenced from the figure (see the difference between d and de). The value of the distance between the antenna axis is directly proportional to the tilt in each subsequent radar antenna (de a 3). It is thus seen that from the geometrical comparison of curved and flat based glazing, that BCc > BCF . The tilt of 5 is dependent on the curvature of the glass. Considering 2 antennas and assuming that radiation lobe or pattern overlap between two adjacent antennas is at least a distance of 75% of the total radar range, the total coverage, dc= d + 0. 75 x r x 3. To supplement the understanding of the skilled person let us consider an example, wherein an angle of curvature of 3 = 3.5 deg (i.e. 0.061 rad) with 800mm radius of curvature is regarded. In this example, the antenna or antenna element may of 30 mm size with 50 mm pitch (d). This provides a minimum arc length of 50 mm for two adjacent antennas. Assuming a single radar antenna field of view (ie. FoV angle or beam angle, 0) is 30 deg, it is established that the increase in end to end of the field of view at 2m range is dc = 50 + 0.75 x 2000 x 0.061 = 141. Antenna elements may thus be distributed in the glass providing better radar beam coverage by utilizing the glass structure curvature as shown in FIG. 11. Again, in a similar manner, an angle of 3.5 deg across the glass surface is equivalent to minimum 10% increase in the coverage area considering a range of 2-3 m from the curved glazing unit such as windshield or the curved glass surface. This advantageously increases the coverage in subsequent antennas across the glass surface. As a result, this provides advantageous effect of covering an entire region around the vehicle with minimum number of radar antennas.

[0051] In an implementation of the invention, the encapsulation layer may be of higher radio frequency transparency than the different layers of glass or polymer which allows the use of the radar unit to be embedded in the encapsulation without any interfering layer. The one or more antenna units may be printed on the outer surface of either glass or embedded as part of the encapsulation process. Alternatively, the antenna may be on the other side of the glazing. Additionally, with these embodiments, the advantage of replacement of radar units may be made if the integrated radar units like radar on chip unit is embedded by way of slide or cassette fit, press or interference fit or as a screwed adapter to the encapsulation. It would be appreciated by one skilled in the art that these are examples integration and are by no means any form of limitations.

[0052] Reference is made to FIG. 12 of the present invention that depicts an instance of integrating a radar unit in windshield. FIG. 12 shows a radar on chip with custom connector points and antenna printed on glass substrate of a windshield. Further, is provided a front view of the integrated radar on chip configuration on windshield. The different antenna units (111) may be configured based on the design specifics and the application thereof to the radar unit (110) by means of connector lines (1202). In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the radar unit (110) may be composed of semiconductor chip for transmitting and receiving radio waves. Said chip may be a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) integrated circuit (IC) and may include radio frequency integrated chip. This makes it possible to reduce the size of the radar and reduce the number of connecting components thereof of the radar. As is seen from the figure, the same chip (110) may be integrated to communicate with the multiple antenna in different arrangements, in which the different arrangement may be obtained for specific applications. The antenna may also be designed to have common number of connectors and terminals which may be further customized for different use cases. In an implementation, said radar chip (110) may be surface soldered on to the antenna layer (111) and its connectors. The antenna layer can be also in any of the outer surfaces of glazing too. In one of the configurations, the radar antennas may have an array configuration wherein one array of antenna units is configured for transmission and another array of antenna units is configured for receiving as shown in FIG. 13. Both of these arrays may be coupled to a single radar unit. In an implementation of the present invention, the radar unit (110) is a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar configured to communicate with an array of transmitting antennas and receiving antennas. Such an arrangement may be configured as per the end application requirement in the vehicle. [0053] In an embodiment of the present invention, the antenna layers may be integrated by way of flexible patch antenna lamination or printed on any of the layers of the glass substrate or interlayer of the glazing. The integration of the antenna layers as flexible patch may by way of printing on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or on similar polymer layers before being embedded into a laminated windshield. Said layers of the glazing may be transparent if the antenna is located in the visibility zone of the glazing (such as A zone or B zone). However, the antenna units and the radar unit may be integrated on any location of the glazing inclusive of the black ceramic region, sunvisor region, rear view mirror region and the like. In an exemplary implementation of the present invention, if a group of antenna units are transmitting at the same time, they could be grouped together and connected by way of a single connector. This advantageously helps in reducing the lamination challenges due to less area of embedded layer between the different substrates of the glazing. The directionality can be achieved by customized antenna designs. This may involve using additional layers (reflector, ground plane etc.) in the antenna structure within the glazing thickness. The antenna beam width and length can be tuned using a single antenna in a glazing or a series of antennas to get a wider coverage.

[0054] For configurations in which the radar unit is external to the glazing or mounted on the glazing by way of surface integration, the antenna or the circuit elements may be spread across the glazing be it laminated glazing or single glazing. The grouping of the antenna elements or units may be possible. This can be implemented by reducing the number of connector cable across the lamination, in case of a laminated glazing. The antenna units may then be segregated based on the power specifications and based on the end application. In an embodiment, a single radar unit may be connected to multiple antennas integrated to the different glazing across the vehicle. The individual set of antennas from each glazing is connected to the radar unit and is capable to communicate to a subset of antenna units for different applications. [0055] In an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed a system for radio detection and ranging (radar) in a vehicle as shown in FIG. 14. The system comprises at least one automotive glazing having at least one substrate of glass or polymer (101). Said automotive glazing further includes at least one radar unit partially or completely disposed within the glazing, one or more antenna units disposed on said substrate. The at least one radar unit is configured to communicate with said one or more antenna units and function with minimum signal loss, such that said radar unit (110) and the one or more antenna units are integrated in the glazing. The system further includes a control unit located outside the glazing. The control unit is operably coupled with the radar unit and the one or more antenna units for detection of objects for at least being applied for blind spot detection, forward and rear collision, parking assistance, lane change and adaptive cruise control, wherein the location of said one or more antenna units in the glazing is dependent on one of said applications. The antenna unit may be arranged within the glazing or outside the glazing. The multiple radar units may be operably coupled to a single data acquisition (DAQ) unit similar to a fusion box used in automotive combining multiple systems, as has been depicted in the FIG. 14. In the system, each group of antennas are connected to different radar units like R1 , R2, R3 and the like. The radar units are operably connected to a single DAQ unit. The DAQ unit is connected to the control unit such as that of an electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicle. The radars also could work individually for each application. For example, let us say radars (R1 and R3) may be configured to work for the object detection, radars (R1 and R2) may be configured to work for object ranging or velocity, lane change and the like. Further, radars (Rl, R2 and R3) are configured for parking assistance or proximity detection. FIG. 15 provides a schematic means to show how the different antenna and radar units disposed across the vehicle may function for different applications. The connections to different components may be brought forth by usage of physical line connecting the control electronic control unit and the transparent USB cable may be used for connecting the antenna and the radar chip. It would be appreciated by one skilled in the art that depicted flow is merely by way of an example and not limitation.

[0056] In an embodiment of the present invention, the space in the pillar region (A- pillar, B-pillar, C-pillar and the like) of the vehicle may be used positioning the antennas in the pillar regions. For, instance the space in the B-pillar region may be used for arranging the antenna units for lane change assistance. For integrating the antenna on the glazing, the glazing can function as the base structure of the antenna. This is advantageous especially for providing constructive impact on the coverage area or range of the signals. The substrate of the glazing may be adapted to function as antenna substrate material in which specific design may be customized accommodating the curved surface of the glazing, in which the substrates may include any of glass, polymer or interlayers, or functional layers thereof. This advantageously reduces the manufacturing involved in integrating the antenna units and the radar unit within the glazing and the effective thickness of the glazing.

[0057] The positioning of the antenna within a glazing space may also be determined by the advantages it provides from the relative height needs. For instance, for determining the positions of the antenna and radar units in the windshield, the middle portion of the inclined windshield may be suitable for cruise control (say for medium range frequency), the upper portion of the windshield may be suitable for cruise control (for long range frequency communication) and the lower portion of the windshield which is the highly inclined portion is suitable for WiFi or GPS communication. The technical benefit of having better coverage for radar functionality and having different antenna units working in tandem is obtained by means of the automotive glazing unit as per the present invention that includes the integrated radar unit and one or more antenna units within the glazing unit itself, in which said radar unit and the antenna units are configured for different applications.

[0058] FIG. 16 illustrates an automotive glazing 1600 having integrated radar unit 110 and PDLC 1602, in accordance with an embodiment. The PDLC 1602 may be disposed between the first substrate 101 and the second substrate 102, and further connected to the antenna 111. The PDLC 1602 is powered using a power unit 1606 and further the radar unit 110 is electrically isolated from the power unit 1606 of the PDLC 1602 using an isolation unit 1604. Using this configuration, the antenna I l l is configured to be used as a part of PDLC system when the radar unit 110 is not used. This is advantageous because antennas combined with PDLC unit becomes one integral unit which reduces the costs involved. Further, the overall power utilization of the system that incorporates the integral system of antennas combined with PDLC unit is comparatively less than the system that utilizes stand-alone antenna and PDLC units.

[0059] FIG. 17 illustrates an automotive glazing 1700 having integrated radar unit, PDLC and heating grid, in accordance with an embodiment. The glazing may comprise a PDLC unit 1602, heating grid 1702 and antenna 111 connected with each other. The isolation unit 1604 is implemented based on the power needed for the antenna 111 from the PDLC supply. PDLC 1602 with antenna 111 and heating grid 1702 are included in the system along with a power ramp down circuit to utilize either or all of the devices at the same time.

Applications:

[0060] In an exemplary embodiment, an automotive radar generally works on 24 GHz, 77GHz (these being approved frequency spectrum) and falls into three categories short range radar (SRR), medium range radar (MRR) and long range radar (LRR). As an exemplary embodiment, reference is made to a frequency-modulated continuous wave radar (FMCW radar) chirp configurations to control all the basic requirements like maximum range, range resolution, maximum velocity and velocity resolution. A chirp is a sinusoid wave whose frequency increases linearly with time and the same is transmitted by a FMCW radar. The maximum range and the range resolution for communication may be given by the following equation, as is established in the art:

Max range = IF _max * T _c * c/(2 * Bw) Range resolution = c I (2 * Bw)

[0061] Where IFmax is the maximum supported intermediate frequency. This is directly related to the sampling rate of the chirp, S is slope of the chirp, c is the speed of light and T _c = chirp time. To achieve different maximum distances in the scenarios for SRR and MRR, with sufficient range resolution, it may be seen that the slope (Bw/T _c needs to be controlled. By similar formulae, it may also be shown that the chirp time and the active frame time control the maximum velocity and velocity resolution. It may be seen that all the parameters are entwined and adjusting one chirp configuration like say chirp time, would affect almost all the required parameters. Besides these, the hardware limitations of the integrated radar unit may also put lot of restrictions. Generally, the radar chirp configuration needs to be performed carefully. The short, medium and long range communication related data for SRR, MRR and LRR may be summarised as depicted in the following table:

Table 2: Example of configurations for various antenna Locations on the vehicle for glazing specific requirements [0062] In an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed that SRR is capable to detect objects within the range of 0.5 to 20 meters and are useful for applications such parking assistance and pre-crash alert. SRR is also capable of being used in blind spot detection, rear and forward collision mitigation, lane change assist and the like. Even though medium range radar may be used for applications like forward collision warning, cross traffic alert, stop and go and the like. Currently, there are not specific formulated the definitions and distinctions between SRR and MRR and neither about their use case.

[0063] In another embodiment of the present invention is disclosed medium range radar (MRR) capable of communicating within the range of 1 to 60 meters and may be configured for applications like cross traffic alert, blind spot detection, lane change, rear collision and pedestrian/cyclist detection. For chirp configuration, as we are moving from SRR to MRR, for the added distance, either the velocity resolution (assuming same range resolution) or the range resolution (assuming same velocity parameters) has to be compensated. If the radar chip supports sufficient higher sampling rate, then MRR may be achieved with the similar configuration as SRR but with more amount of data in radar cube.

[0064] In yet another embodiment of the present invention is disclosed long range radar (LRR) capable of communicating within the range of 100 to 250 meters and may be configured for applications like adaptive cruise control, emergency braking and collision warning. Usually, LRR configurations are very different and generally, while scanning at 150 meters, the range resolution is not so crucial. A range resolution of 1 m must be regarded sufficient. This facilitates in reducing the bandwidth to 1 GHz and thereby reduce the radar data cube size. Consequently, results in lesser data for processing. It is also known that the noise level from both the chip and attenuation from atmosphere is lesser for lesser frequency. As a result, it is preferred to use 76-77 GHz band for LRR, even though, in the literal sense it does not fall within the band of 77- 81 GHz.

[0065] In the following table are summarized the multiple possibilities of configurations of the radar unit and the antennas based on the application of these units. Table 3: Various applications of radar integration on glazing in a vehicle

[0066] The present invention may find application in vehicle driving assistance (ADAS), vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V) and even for V2X communication inclusive of infrastructure, satellite and the like. In an embodiment of the present invention is provided the one or more antenna units as wide band antennas, in which the antenna is able to operate in different frequency ranges allowing for usage between two different radar units. Alternatively, multiple number of wide band antennas may be configured to support an array of radar units. In an implementation is provided array antenna configuration across the glazing being included within the glazing for radar based communication. The phased array is capable of offering controlled beam orientation and coverage. The array configuration of antenna with different design and powering may be used to control the beam width and length for the radar antenna. Alternatively, antenna layers may be made from meta-material or meta-surfaces to minimize the form factor of the antenna. This could also be made with silver nanowires or particles to enable transparent conductive coating.

[0067] Some of the non-limiting advantages of the present invention may be enlisted as:

• The different configuration of the radar unit and the antenna are capable of reducing the attenuation of the radar signal.

• The antenna configuration helps in providing a wider coverage by using distributed radar antenna across the curvature of the glazing.

• Both the radar unit and the antenna units may be integrated into the glazing utilizing the space in a vehicle frame.

• Multiple antenna configurations may be enabled for different use cases not available, in which number of antenna units required may be reduced. • The different configurations of integration provided in the present invention takes into account the radar unit thickness restrictions and provides an application specific configuration. It also caters to reduction in manufacturing steps. • Multiple antenna units for radar based communication is provided across the car enabling better coverage and working in tandem.

List of reference numerals and features 100, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1200, 1300: automotive glazing

101: first substrate of glass or polymer

102: second substrate

103: Interlayer

110: a radar unit 111, 11 la, 11 lb: antenna units

902: encapsulate

114: Cut-out

1202: connector line