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Original question:

AWR1843BOOST: Lab0011 MRR Beamsteering: Parking Option Not working in Beamsteering

AWR1843BOOST: What are the other differences between Beam Steering and non Beam Steering ?

Mostafa Besar
Intellectual 470 points
Part Number: AWR1843BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR1642

Hello,

Is the only difference between Beam Steering and non Beam Steering the max range becomes greater in Beam Steering after +/-40 deg?

Are there any differences?

Thanks,

  • 0
    TI__Genius 15046 points

    Hi Mostafa,

    Apart from this, since beamforming is used, all three antennas transmit together. This reduces the number of virtual antennas from numRx*numTx to numRx. This will reduce the angle resolution. Apart from this, there should not be any fundamental differences.

    Regards,

    Aayush

  • 0 in reply to Aniket Mahajan
    Intellectual 470 points

    Hello Aayush,

    Could you explain me what's meaning of this statement? 

    Aniket Mahajan said:
    This reduces the number of virtual antennas from numRx*numTx to numRx

    Thanks,

    Mostafa

  • +1 in reply to Mostafa Besar
    TI__Genius 15046 points

    Hi,

    We usually operate the radar by turning on 1TX at a time for each chirp. So TX transmissions would look like:  chirp0(TX0) chirp1(TX1) chirp2(TX2) chirp3(TX0), ....

    If only 1TX were used, the angle resolution would depend on the number of receiving antennae, roughly speaking. With the sequence of chirps I described above, we can get better performance, as we end up creating virtual antennae. This is the TDM-MIMO (time division multiplexing, multiple-in, multiple-out) concept.

    With 4Rx and 2Tx working, we get the same angular resolution performance as we would have if we had 8 Rx antenna and 1Tx.

    With beamsteering, we don't get this MIMO advantage, as all TXs transmit at the same time.

    I know my explanation above isn't comprehensive. We have some good resources that cover the MIMO topic in the radar context in more detail:

    Introduction to mmWave radar sensing: FMCW radars training series

    The fundamentals of millimeter wave radar sensors App Note

    MIMO Radar App Note

    Regards,

    Aayush

  • 0 in reply to Aniket Mahajan
    Intellectual 470 points

    Hello Aayush,

    Thanks for this information.

    I read a part of MIMO Radar App Note and I come up with:

    Is Beamsteering uses BPM-MIMO? if not why beamsteering doesn't use the advantage of BPM-MIMO which able to turn on all TX antennas as same time slot ? unlike TDM MIMO which turn on just on TX at one time slot.

    Thanks & Regards

    Mostafa

  • 0 in reply to Mostafa Besar
    TI__Genius 15046 points

    Hi Mostafa,

    The purpose of the lab was to demonstrate beamforming and beamsteering. To form a beam at a particular angle, you need to have the TX programmed at particular phase shifts. These phase shifts do not correspond to the phase shifts needed by the BPM scheme, hence, we can't have both beamsteering and BPM.

    So, while we could have used BPM to enable all TXs (and we have a configuration for that in the AWR1642 out of box demo), this would not give us beamforming.

    When we use beamforming, the dB gain is even higher than if we simply enable multiple the TXs under BPM scheme.

    Regards,

    Aayush

  • 0 in reply to Aniket Mahajan
    Intellectual 470 points

    Hello,

    So the only advantages of Beam steering in mmWave radars is good ranges in maximum angles?

    Thanks,

    Mostafa,

  • 0 in reply to Mostafa Besar
    TI__Genius 15046 points

    Hi Mostafa,

    That is correct.

    Regards,

    Aayush