IWR6843: Antenna design & testing

Hector Ta

Part Number: IWR6843

My team is designing a new antenna circuit board based on IWR6843. But the TX,RX signal power seem to be weak, so we can't set SNR threshold up to 200~300 but have to set to 5~10 for tracking and has many ghost. So we are re-designing another model for larger TX, RX antenna signal. Here're my teammates questions:

1. Is there any equipment for IWR6843 antenna testing? Any testing board for reference?
2. Each channel of Tx / Rx Gain whether is related to DSP code?
3. Is there any correlation between antenna polarization direction and DSP code?

over 5 years ago

0 Akash Gondalia over 5 years ago

TI__Guru 50240 points

Hi Hector,

Before proceeding can you confirm you have been using the IWR6843ISK-ODS board and not the IWR6843ISK or other board?

We will have a response for you next week.

Regards,

0 Hector Ta over 5 years ago in reply to Akash Gondalia

Expert 2440 points

Hi Akash,

Sadly, both of our ODS & ISK have issue. The main reason is that the antenna TX to Rx Gain is difficult to be consistent.

We can only adjust threshold based on software. Which part in the software can we change in accordance with the change of antenna polarization direction?

0 CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B. over 5 years ago in reply to Hector Ta

TI__Mastermind 25835 points

Hello Hector,

1) For Antenna calibration you could refer to the below e2e post

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/1023/p/892202/3303979#3303979

2) Each channel Tx, Rx gain is independent of DSP code,

For each Tx output power is could be set (Max currently it's 10dBm), There would be transmission line losses that need to be accounted. For the receiver you could set a gain, and for each of the antenna there is gain associated all of these are independent of DSP operation.

You could review sensing estimator tool for link budget analysis and modify the parameters as applicable to your system.

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

3) For Custom antenna design on ODS kind of Antenna designs you could refer to the below E2E post for changing the software according to your antenna polarization.

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/1023/p/854133/3171752#3171752

Thanks and regards,

CHETHAN KUMAR Y.B.

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IWR6843: Antenna design & testing