IWR6843AOP: Avoiding Interference in Overlapping Radar Installations

Spark

Part Number: IWR6843AOP

Tool/software:

Hi there,

I’m currently working on a modified version of the Area Scanner demo for an industrial doors application. In some cases, radar units might be installed relatively close to each other, resulting in overlapping areas of interest.

To minimize interference between the radars, I plan to adjust their operating frequencies. Given the following setup:

Bandwidth used per radar: 1.5 GHz
Total available band: 4 GHz
Three radars operating simultaneously

I would like to understand the potential effects if the chirp frequencies of these radars overlap by a few hundred MHz. Could this lead to significant interference, or would the system still perform reliably under such conditions?

I appreciate any insights or recommendations you can provide.

Thank you for your support.

Best regards,
Ed

7 months ago

0 Swarnendu Chattopadhyay 7 months ago

TI__Expert 3580 points

Hi there,

I would like you to refer to the below document:

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra662a/swra662a.pdf

Also, you can refer to the below material:

https://www.ti.com/video/6021613420001

Thanks,

Swarnendu

0 Spark 7 months ago in reply to Swarnendu Chattopadhyay

Prodigy 80 points

Hi Swarnendu,

Thank you very much for the references! They have been extremely helpful in improving my understanding of the interference problem.

If I understood correctly, in my case, the interference would primarily be parallel interference, which already has a low occurrence probability since the chirps from the "aggressor" and "victim" radars would need to start very close to each other in time. This means I might encounter occasional ghost detections, but they should be intermittent.

Additionally, the fact that my bandwidth is 1.54 GHz and the overlap between the "aggressor" and "victim" radars is about 300 MHz suggests that the interference effects should not be too severe.

That said, I would like to implement chirp dithering to further reduce the chances of interference. Is there any example or guidance on how to use chirp dithering with the IWR6843AOP? I’d appreciate any pointers or resources you could share.

Thank you again for your support!

Best regards,
Ed

+1 Swarnendu Chattopadhyay 7 months ago in reply to Spark

TI__Expert 3580 points

Hi Ed,

You can use chirp config APIs to randomize certain chirp parameters. For the API guide, please refer to the interface control document:

mmWave Radar Interface Control Document

AWR_CHIRP_CONF_SET_SB - this API can be used to control the chirp parameters.

Thanks,

Swarnendu

0 Spark 7 months ago in reply to Swarnendu Chattopadhyay

Prodigy 80 points

Thank you Swarnendu, managed to implement chirp dithering.

Regards,
Ed

0 Swarnendu Chattopadhyay 7 months ago in reply to Spark

TI__Expert 3580 points

Thank you, Ed.

Glad to help you.

Closing this thread.

Regards,

Swarnendu.

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IWR6843AOP: Avoiding Interference in Overlapping Radar Installations