With the rapid evolution of intelligent vehicles and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), the demand for precise environmental sensing continues to rise. Solid State System Co., Ltd. (3S) is collaborating with a leading global automotive system-on-chip (SoC) company to drive next-generation ultrasonic sensing technologies. By integrating MEMS microphones with piezoelectric (piezo) components, the solution enhances the detection capability and reliability of parking assistance systems while laying the foundation for next-generation high-precision environmental perception.

Currently, most automotive parking sensor systems rely on piezo sensors for both ultrasonic transmission and reception. However, within the typical 40 kHz to 60 kHz operating range, piezo receivers face inherent limitations. These include difficulty in reliably detecting low-height obstacles below approximately 40 cm, as well as the presence of a near-field blind zone of around 15 cm, both of which increase the risk of collision.

To address these challenges, the new-generation system introduces MEMS microphones as the receiving element. Compared to conventional piezoelectric components, MEMS microphones offer a wider frequency response, enabling more effective detection of Doppler-induced frequency shifts and improving the accuracy and stability of ultrasonic echo sensing. In addition, MEMS microphones feature omnidirectional reception and compact size, making them well-suited for multi-sensor array configurations and advanced signal processing architectures such as 4D point cloud generation. In terms of performance, MEMS microphones provide a dynamic range of approximately 96 dB, significantly higher than the roughly 48 dB of traditional piezoelectric devices. This not only enhances overall detection accuracy but also extends the maximum sensing range. By adopting a hybrid architecture combining piezo transmission and MEMS-based reception, the system achieves both high acoustic output and high-sensitivity reception, enabling more precise detection of near-field obstacles and improved long-range measurement accuracy in complex environments.

In addition to conventional consumer automotive parking sensors, this high-precision ultrasonic ranging technology can also be applied to large vehicles such as dump trucks, heavy-duty trucks, and commercial vehicles. It enables the detection of pedestrians or obstacles during turning, forward movement, or reversing, thereby reducing blind-spot risks and helping to prevent accidents. Furthermore, this technology demonstrates strong scalability and can be extended to applications in robotics, healthcare, and industrial automation, such as obstacle avoidance for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), precise distance measurement, and smart manufacturing sensing, offering broad market potential.

Solid State System stated will continue to deepen its MEMS microphone technology deployment in sensing applications and collaborate with global automotive semiconductor companies and industry partners to accelerate commercialization across both automotive and cross-domain markets, building high-growth acoustic sensing solutions for the future.