Lunewave brings a decades-old antenna technology into the world of AVs

Hao Xin had prodded his business- minded brother for years. The University of Arizona professor of computer and electrical engineering and physics wanted to start a business based on nearly a decade of his research into a niche radar technology that's been around for nearly 80 years.

Over a few glasses of wine one night, the idea finally took hold.

The business consultant, who had a 5-year-old son and pregnant wife, quit his job and sold the family's home. Along with his older brother, he co-founded Lunewave, a company now positioned to alter the automotive industry's sensor landscape.

Traditional radar units have a limited field of view. Depending on their purpose in driver-assist systems or autonomous vehicles, a half-dozen or more may be needed to cover a desired field of view. Lunewave says its products can have as much as a 360-degree field of view with a single unit. At the same time, they can detect objects at a range of 380 yards, about double the distance of most automotive radar today.

"We are approaching lidar capability with radar technology," John Xin said.

The underlying technology is not all that new. In the 1940s, German scientist Rudolf Lüneburg pioneered the sphere-shaped antennas, and they've been used in fighter jets, among other applications, for a long time. But nobody could manufacture one small enough for automotive applications.

A little bigger than a golf ball, Lunewave's antenna has 6,500 distinct chambers that are crucial to its function. With the advent of 3D printing, Hao Xin learned to manufacture it at a smaller scale over the course of nearly a decade of research.

In addition to automotive, the Xins say a slightly different design of their antenna could have important implications for 5G infrastructure stations. But much of Lunewave's funding comes with auto applications in mind. Urban-x, a business accelerator started by U.K. auto brand Mini, provided pre-seed funding, and BMW i Ventures and Baidu Ventures participated in Lunewave's seed round.

Despite much attention on other sensors that may enable the self-driving future, these investors are convinced there's a lot of room left for innovation in the one that's been around the longest.