On February 11, Hefei Minghong Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., located in Hefei High‑Tech Zone, officially unveiled its home‑developed millimeter‑wave phased‑array chip for low‑altitude sensing. The chip's debut marks a significant breakthrough in China's core components for low‑altitude safety monitoring and provides a solid security safeguard for the rapidly expanding low‑altitude economy.

The chip integrates multi‑channel, complex phased‑array transmit/receive and beam‑forming capabilities onto a silicon substrate smaller than a thumbnail. Company head Duan Zongming explained: "Cameras and 5G‑A struggle to achieve kilometer‑level airspace sensing; phased‑array radar can deliver safety monitoring up to 10 kilometers. However, traditional phased‑arrays built from discrete components are bulky, costly and hard to deploy at scale. Our chip is purpose‑built for low‑altitude protection—leveraging advanced millimeter‑wave technology and silicon semiconductor processes to enable radar units that are more compact, easier to deploy, higher performing and lower cost."

Around critical urban infrastructure, it can accurately identify low, slow and small targets such as drones—measuring size, speed, trajectories and even flight patterns. Even when facing more challenging drone swarms, radar based on this chip can leverage advanced algorithms for effective differentiation and early warning, preventing incidents before they occur and providing ground responders valuable time.

With reforms in low‑altitude airspace management and the booming development of drone logistics and urban air mobility, low‑altitude safety has become a cornerstone of public safety and industrial health. Minghong Microelectronics' millimeter‑wave phased‑array chip is expected to see broad application across scenarios like vehicle‑mounted and portable systems, greatly advancing the intelligence, networking and popularization of low‑altitude security systems.

The release not only showcases Minghong Microelectronics' innovation capabilities in millimeter‑wave chip design but also represents a landmark achievement for Hefei—and Anhui's—integrated‑circuit industry in frontier chip domains. Minghong has reportedly built a comprehensive patent portfolio in this field and is collaborating deeply with downstream system integrators; its products have entered mass shipment and scaling deployment, contributing a "Hefei chip" to the construction of a layered, intelligent low‑altitude security shield.

Source: Anhuinews.com