NXP Semiconductors N.V. has announced a new strategic collaboration and investment agreement with Hawkeye Technology Co., Ltd, a company at the forefront of the Chinese automotive radar sector.

Hawkeye will offer its 77Ghz expertise, a team of engineers and a lab complex within Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Together, the two companies will form a reference design collaboration that leverages the engineering talent at Southeast University and NXP’s radar expertise, to create NXP-based reference designs for the Chinese automotive market.

China’s automotive radar sensor market is growing at nearly 2 times the world market rate. Current automotive market analysis projects that by 2020, radar technology will be in 50% of all newly produced cars. China New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP) mandates the further implementation of radar in safety-related applications such as blind spot detection, automatic emergency braking, front and rear cross traffic detection and precise environmental mapping.

NXP is a market leader in RFCMOS-based 77Ghz automotive radar sensors, a key technology in the next phase of the advanced driving assistance roadmap. This technology will continue to develop to address the detection and classification of vulnerable road users, full and surround view applications and eventually imaging radar, which could in time replace more expensive and bulky technologies.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.