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AWR2544LOPEVM: Is the AWR2544LOPEVM a MIMO radar?

SHUHEI TERADA
Prodigy 40 points
Part Number: AWR2544LOPEVM
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AWR2544

Tool/software:

Dear Ti Support team,

Nice to meet you. Last year, I purchased the AWR2544LOPEVM for radar evaluation purposes.
I have a question regarding the antenna section: Is the AWR2544LOPEVM designed for use as a MIMO radar, or is it intended to function as a phased-array radar?

While reviewing the user guide, I noticed a diagram of a virtual antenna array, which leads me to believe that the device operates as a MIMO radar. However, since the term "MIMO" does not appear anywhere in the documentation, I would like to confirm this understanding.

Thank you for your assistance.

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 35425 points

    Hello Shuhei,

    Whether its phased array or MIMO depends on how you configure the radar on the device.
    Our software the DDM and TDM both are MIMO based itself.

    Regards,
    Saswat Kumar

  • 0 in reply to Saswat Kumar
    Prodigy 40 points

    Hello Saswat,

    Thank you for your reply.
    Regarding the dependency on the device configuration, I believe the antenna element arrangement differs between phased array and MIMO.
    Would it be necessary to make changes not only to the hardware, such as the antenna, but also to the software configuration?

    Best regards,

  • 0 in reply to SHUHEI TERADA
    TI__Mastermind 35425 points

    Hello Shuhei,

    I am not sure what you mean by hardware difference, as from what my understanding is how you configure the software to either get like phase array or MIMO.
    We have a beam forming example which I think you are referring to the phase array implementation and the TDM, DDM are based on the MIMO implementation. You can take a look at the software difference in them and confirm your understanding.

    Regards,
    Saswat Kumar

  • 0 in reply to Saswat Kumar
    Prodigy 40 points

    Hello Saswat Kumar,

    Thank you for your explanation. I must apologize as I am not very familiar with the details of software signal processing and need to study further to fully understand it.

    Regarding the hardware differences, I was mainly referring to the arrangement of antenna elements. For MIMO antennas, I understand that the elements need to be arranged with unequal spacing to construct virtual receiving antennas (as mentioned in the AWR2544LOPEVM User’s Guide on page 17 ).

    On the other hand, for phased arrays, I thought it was not necessary to use unequal spacing, and placing the antenna elements at equal intervals would suffice.

    My objective was to confirm whether the antenna design needs to be changed depending on the differences between phased arrays and MIMO.

    Is my understanding correct that, in principle, phased arrays and MIMO can be accommodated without modifying the antenna design?

    Best regards,
    Shuhei

  • 0 in reply to SHUHEI TERADA
    TI__Mastermind 35425 points

    Hello Shuhei,

    Let me also include someone from the hardware team who can help here on this.
    Your understanding is correct for MIMO, I am not too sure on the phased array.

    Regards,
    Saswat Kumar

  • 0 in reply to SHUHEI TERADA
    TI__Mastermind 30545 points

    Hello,

    Yes, the EVM could support both beamforming and MIMO radars. The device has a 6-bit phase shifter for beamforming and all TX can be operated simultaneously.

    Regards,

    Adrian 

  • 0 in reply to aozer
    Prodigy 40 points

    Hello Adrian,

    Nice to meet you, and thank you for your reply. I appreciate the information about the beamforming capability.

    I have one more question.
    When designing the antenna, is it necessary to match the path length (phase shift) from the double-ridge port on the PCB to the antenna elements across all channels?

    Or does the device have a phase calibration function, making precise matching unnecessary?

    I apologize for the repeated questions, but I would greatly appreciate your insights.

    Best regards,

    Shuhei

  • 0 in reply to SHUHEI TERADA
    TI__Mastermind 30545 points

    Hello,

    Sorry for the delay.

    We recommend to keep phase matching within 3 degrees. You can calibrate it out for a given temperature, but due to non-linearities across temperature it will start to cause issues if you have >3 degrees phase mismatch between channels.

    Regards,

    Adrian

  • 0 in reply to aozer
    Prodigy 40 points

    Dear Adrian,

    Hello, and thank you for your reply.

    I understand that phase matching needs to be kept within 3 degrees. I will adjust the electrical length of the path to eliminate the phase difference. It seems that phase correction for a specific temperature is also available as a function.

    Could you please let me know where I can find information on the phase correction method? I checked the technical documentation for the AWR2544, but I couldn't find any details on it.

    Regards,
    Shuhei

  • 0 in reply to SHUHEI TERADA
    TI__Mastermind 30545 points

    Hello,

    All of the calibrations are documented in the interface control document (ICD). You can find this in the latest SDK package at the below directory.

    C:\ti\mmwave_mcuplus_sdk_04_07_00_01\mmwave_dfp_02_04_17_00\docs

    Regards,

    Adrian 

  • 0 in reply to aozer
    Prodigy 40 points

    Hello,

    Thank you for letting me know the location of the document.
    I will check it out. I really appreciate your detailed explanation.

    Best regards,
    Shuhei