I would like to find a smooth approximation of the indicator function of the unit closed ball (which is a compact) of $ \mathbb{R}^N,\ N \geq 2. $ I tried to find a sequence $ \eta_m $ of the form:
$ \eta_m(x) = \left\{\begin{array}{ccc} 1,\ if\ 0 < \left|x\right| \leq 1, \\ \ \varphi_m(x),\ if\ 1 < \left|x\right| < 1 + a_m, \\ 0,\ if\ \left|x\right| \geq 1+a_m, \end{array} \right. $ where $ a_m \to 0. $ The problem is that we want that the sequence $ \eta_m $ is bounded and its derivative to be also bounded. I tried the affin function $ \varphi_m (x) = m(1 + \frac{1}{m}-\left|x\right|), $ but the boundedness of the derivative is not here. Any suggestion is welcome.