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AWR1243BOOST: Hardware suggestion for long range radar development

Enric Gardein
Intellectual 500 points
Part Number: AWR1243BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR1243, , AWR1642, AWR1443BOOST, IWR1443, IWR1642, AWR1443

Hello,

the company I am working with wants to develop an mid / long range radar application, which can detect objects in range

from ~5m (as near as possible) to at least 100m (better would be 200m+). Also, the azimuth angle should be as large as possible.

While looking for appropriate sensors, I found your AWR portfolio. I really appreciate all the work you did to provide so many understandable information (documents and videos)

about your products and FMCW radar sytems in general. Great work!

I still have some questions and hope you can help me.

1. For the application mentioned above I think the AWR1243 would be the right choice, wouldn't it?

2. For algorithm development, would you suggest the following hardware or do you have any other suggestions?

- AWR1243BOOST

- DevPack for better connectivity

- TSW1400 to capture raw ADC data

3. Just to clearification: With this hardware I would be able to save raw ADC data to my PC and postprocess the captured data? 

But just AFTER capturing, there is no possible way to postprocess "live" data, right?

4. Instead of the TSW1400, would it be possible to use the TSW1405? If yes, with which limitations would we have to deal with?

5. Since I am pretty new to these kind of sensors / radar in general, would you suggest to purchase AWR1443BOOST or AWR1642 as well?

Since you provide example codes for these boards and "you can run a first demo in under 30 minutes", it might help understanding these systems

and it would be easier to develop own algorithms for the AWR1243?

Thank you very much,

Enric

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 30405 points

    Hi Enric,

    1. TI's mmWave Radar portfolio is divided into two series, AWR1xxx and IWR1xxx (www.ti.com/mmwave). The AWR series is geared towards automotive applications while IWR is targeted at broader industrial applications.

    The selection of a device would depend upon your scene requirements which includes: Target object (i.e. RCS), Max range and range resolution, Max velocity and velocity resolution, etc and the resulting memory and processing requirements.

    While all devices i.e. AWR1243, xWR1443 and xWR1642 can achieve target ranges up to 200m, the radar cube memory and processing requirements of your application will determine the right choice. The AWR1243 is a sensor front-end only device and requires external memory and external processor for FMCW signal processing. While xWR1443 and xWR1642 have on-board memories, FFT accelerator and processors (Cortex R4F or Cortex R4F + C674x DSP on 16xx) for on-chip radar processing.

    I would recommend to start with the mmWave Sensing Estimator tool and enter your scene requirements to see which device best suits your needs.

    2. Yes, If you want to capture raw DFE data for algorithm development, you'll need the mmWave EVM (AWR1243 or IWR1443) + mmWave DEVPACK + TSW1400 Data capture card. The following video training under mmWave-Training-Series provides step-by-step instructions for capturing raw data with mmWave EVM and TSW1400 : https://training.ti.com/mmwave-sensor-raw-data-capture-using-tsw1400-board?cu=1128486

    3. Correct, you can save raw DFE data on your PC for offline analysis (e.g. using Matlab).

    4. No, TSW1400 is the only supported platform for raw data capture with mmWave EVMs and DEVPACK.

    5. Sure, it would be very helpful to have an IWR1443 or IWR1642 EVM and be able to run and understand the Out of Box demos to begin your evaluation process as these demos provide a complete basic FMCW signal processing chain for Range, Doppler and Angle of Arrival estimation. You can change the scene parameters in the mmWave Demo Visualizer to test different sensing configurations.

    Regards

    -Nitin

  • 0 in reply to Nitin Sakhuja
    TI__Mastermind 30405 points
    Hi Enric,

    Did the above responses answer your questions? If so, can you please mark the thread as answered?

    Thanks
    -Nitin
  • 0 in reply to Nitin Sakhuja
    Intellectual 500 points
    Hi Nitin,

    your answer was very helpful! Thank you, sorry that i did not answer earlier.

    I think I have a 3 follow up question:

    1. After your response I took a further look at the IWR devices. Is it correct, that the only differences between AWR1443 and IWR1443 /AWR1642 and IWR1642 are temperature range, CAN interfaces at xWR1642 and AECQ100 qualifaction at AWR? Is the qualification the reason for the huge price differences of the devices (IWR1443 35.15$ vs AWR1443 121.18$)?

    2. Since all sensors use the same radar front end, I can measure the same data via LVDS with IWR1443 as with AWR1243, am I correct?

    3. Will there be a "IWR version" of the AWR1243?

    Thank you very much! I really appreciate your effort!
    Enric
  • 0 in reply to Enric Gardein
    TI__Mastermind 30405 points
    Hi Enric,

    Sorry for the delay in following up. I have forwarded these questions to our Marketing team and they should get back to you soon.

    Thanks
    -Nitin