Dr. Melzer’s work focuses on vehicle radar sensors designed to provide accurate information in regards to distance, speed, and angles to surrounding objects in road traffic. The information is not only vital as part of a modern driver assistance system (adaptive cruise control or brake assistants), but is also required in order to create driverless cars. The radar sensors are essential in providing range and accuracy in order to function safely and protect passengers as well as others on the road. This is of utmost importance as 90% of all rear-end collisions that result in personal injury are due to human error while up to 72% of these accidents could be prevented with the use of emergency braking systems.

For optical reasons, but also to protect the lenses, radar sensors are often installed behind the car’s bumper or behind the autobody. As a result, the emitted radar signal is permanently reflected by the bumper at a relatively high signal frequency, thus superimposing the desired reflections.

Alexander MELZER’S dissertation proposes new concepts and methods to suppress bumper reflections which, for the first time, can be completely implemented in a monolithically integrated microwave circuit (MMIC). An expert panel reviewed Dr. Melzer’s work and presented him with the award, stating, “…a rare stroke of luck in the art and skill of engineering”.