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IWR6843ISK: Device verification test report

Lukas Liao
Prodigy 250 points
Part Number: IWR6843ISK
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: IWR6843

Hello TI support team,

Do you have any report of device verification test?

How do you determine your EVM which is good or not?

Are any important parameters except antenna pattern?  Ex: the slope flatness of chirp or Phase Coherence?

Best regards,

 Lukas

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 33805 points

    Hi,

    The EVMs are tested before packaging.

    Do you have a malfunctioning EVM? Please provide some information on the reason for the question.

    Regards,

    Charles O

  • 0 in reply to Charles Oladimeji
    Prodigy 250 points
    Hi Charles
    The reason is i am trying to take TI's module for designing a FMCW product. But now i am lack of experience of FMCW radar IC, so i want to know what's the importance parameter for FMCW radar.
    So that i can determine what's the better board and what's the worse board.
    BR,
    Lukas
  • 0 in reply to Lukas Liao
    TI__Mastermind 25835 points
    Hello,

    At the chip level production line we do measure all the RF parameters like frequency, TX power , RX gain, Noise figure, Power consumption e.t.c. i.e. most of the data sheet parameters are tested. But at the module level you would have to do a radiated measurements.

    From our experience you would have to use a corner reflector of known RCS kept at a fixed distance in a reasonable controlled environment (Best if you could get a anechoic chamber) kept at zero angle and measurement from each TX to each RX is taken.

    Any phase mismatch between the channels needs to be calibrated out, this mismatch can be caused by PCB trace, antenna manufacturing tolerance. This would be based on the accuracy that your application would demand.
    Depending upon your application range measurement, Angle of arrival measurement could be done at various points within your field of view.

    Thanks and regards,
    CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.
  • 0 in reply to CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.
    Prodigy 250 points

    Hello

    Thanks for your useful information!

    BR

    Lukas 

  • 0 in reply to CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.
    Prodigy 250 points

    Hi TI support team,

    And I have a question with how can I measure the receiver part of RF spec, ex: NF, IF bandwidth, A2D sampling rate and Idle Channel Spurs.

    Is there any lab for checking the value of RF spec i mentioned it? 

    BR,

    Lukas

  • 0 in reply to Lukas Liao
    TI__Mastermind 25835 points

    Hello Lukas,

        These type of tests are done in the conducted environments i.e.  In order to measure  this accurately you would need a PCB with wave guide setup or broadband connectors such as 1mm co-axial connectors  which allows direction connection from equipment to the device.

    Few of the equipment that you would need are:  Waveguides/Coaxial cable that operate at 60Ghz , power meter for 60Ghz  band (This would be used for power calibration purpose).  A signal generator or harmonic mixer/converters  would be used to feed the CW tones to the device and mixed and down converted IF signal would be used to measure the receiver performance of the device.  These are done at device level.  

    At module level where Antennas are etched on the PCB  typically Radiated testes are done in a controlled environment.  

    Link  budget analysis is done with the known distance, known RCS, Chirp configuration, Known output power using friis equation SNR is computed 

    and this is compared with measured results and pass/fail criteria is derived from this. 

    We do not have any test house for the recommendation at this point in time.

    Below is the example of link budget elements from our sensing estimator tool. 

    https://dev.ti.com/gallery/view/1792614/mmWaveSensingEstimator/ver/1.3.0/ 

    Thanks and regards,

    CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.

  • 0 in reply to CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.
    Prodigy 250 points

    Hi CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.

    Thanks for your information.

    But I am not clearly understanding. I have 2 questions about Rx and Tx.

    1.) If I directly feed the FMCW to Rx, how can it determine the performance of FMCW?

    Can I have a toolbox loaded in my module to see the measured signal inputted by VSG?

    2.)

    If I want to measure the Tx performance of TI module,

    a.) I need to prepare the following equipment: 

    Waveguides/Coaxial cable that operate at 60Ghz

    power meter for 60GHz band

    VSA

    And then

    b.) make a decision for the parameters like the pic showed in your last response. And get the theoretical parameter by mmWave Sensing estimator.

    c.) load config on TI module, and transmit the power(FMCW waveform)

    d.) directly connect from chip through connecter to VSA.

    e.) compare the parameter I measured with the theoretical parameter 

    Is it the right approach?

    If it's right, I have the last question.

    Is there any pass/fail criteria for these compared parameters? for example: under 10% offset is acceptable...etc

     

  • 0 in reply to Lukas Liao
    TI__Mastermind 25835 points
    Hello,

    Above method is explained is for performing FMCW based system test when Radar is chirping.

    If you would like to perform Individual Tx and Rx Test separately then you need to use CW (Continuous Wave ) based tests without using FM modulation.

    For this purpose you could use mmWave studio.

    For receiver testing stand alone:

    1) You could feed signal generator with the CW frequency within the frequency band of device.
    In the mmWave studio you could set the LO to generate CW frequency "ConstStreaming" tab.
    Between the generator and Device LO you need to ensure there is frequency difference within the maximum IF frequency of the receiver.
    In IWR6843 it would be 10Mhz band. And down converted ADC values could be captured post processed.

    For Transmitter testing stand alone CW mode:

    2) You could send the known CW frequency in the similar manner in the mmWave studio, by feeding the desired frequency in "ConstStreaming" tab. If the instrument supports direct mmWave frequency then you could measure the spectrum in Spectrum analyzer. Otherwise you need to use external mixer to down convert the frequency to lower IF frequency level where you instrument could accept those frequencies.

    If you would like to evaluate TI EVMs system level (FMCW) tests are best preferred it's using both Tx and Rx together using a a corner reflector of known RCS kept at a fixed distance as stated above.

    You could use out of box SDK demo application to measure the distance between the object and radar.

    Below link provides the documentation and guide for the same:
    dev.ti.com/.../

    Depending upon you application range/velocity/Angle accuracy requirements you could set threshold for the measurements.

    Below two application note gives further reading material on this topic.

    TI mmWave Radar sensor RF PCB Design, Manufacturing and Validation Guide:
    www.ti.com/.../spracg5.pdf

    Programming Chirp Parameters in TI Radar Devices
    www.ti.com/.../swra553.pdf

    Thanks and regards,
    CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.
  • 0 in reply to CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.
    Prodigy 250 points
    Dear CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.

    Where is the mmWave studio and "ConstStreaming" tab?
    Is a toolbox? Where can I find it?

    Regards,
    Luaks
  • 0 in reply to Lukas Liao
    TI__Mastermind 25835 points
    Hello,

    You could download the mmWave studio from the following location.
    You would need DCA1000 hardware as well to interface with the mmWave studio.
    www.ti.com/.../

    After installation, review the user guide in the below folder.
    C:\ti\mmwave_studio_02_00_00_02\docs\
    and you will find the detailed description on "Continuous Streaming Tab Operations"

    Also there is a training Video available from the below link:
    training.ti.com/dca1000-training-video

    Thanks and regards,
    CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.