• State
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 4 replies
  • Subscribers 32 subscribers
  • Views 823 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Support feedback
Options
Options
Similar topics

This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

AWR1843: How to reduce the power consumption

chianan chang
Intellectual 810 points
Part Number: AWR1843
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: , IWR6843

Hi

I know TI's mmwave IC does not support sleep mode currently, but I have a project that need a battery powered radar that the power consumption is very important to let this project success or not.

This project need the Radar to track multi-target ( use SDK's 3D-tracker), and I found 200mS frame period with the tracking can work well. But the problem is the power consumption can not meet the project requriement, even though we had follow TI's power consumption optimization video but we still far away from the goal.

Is there any way that I can use a external MCU ( like a cheap Cortex M0 ) to control the mmwave IC ( not power on/off , because we need to keep the tracker memory so than the tracker can keep tracking  for next frame ) let the mmwave IC can enter some kind of mode ( this mode power consumption need to be very very low, but just keep the size of the RAM that tracker required) when Radar send out the target data to let mmwave enter a very low power mode, than MCU wait for example 150ms to set the mmwave IC wakeup , let the mmwave IC can continue to process next frame, even though the mmwave need to be reset ( but RAM data keep ) is OK if that way can reduce the power consumption.

Can you help to check is it possible?

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 31680 points

    Hello User,

    As you said, there's no such sleep mode in the AWR1843 device which can limit the power consumption to a minimum number, hence I'm afraid the last part of your query isn't possible. But there are other ways that can help you achieve lower average power numbers:

    1. Power is mostly consumed by the device in Active chirping mode. So basically, if you reduce the chirp duty cycle (ratio of active framing and total frame period), that will help in ultimately reducing the average device power. This can be done either by decreasing the frame active time (keeping total frame time constant) or by increasing the inter-frame idle time.

    2. You can also disable the active number of transmitters at once to reduce power (or reduce the output power/transmitting power of TX)

    3. You can save power by configuring Interchirp Idle time > 10us. In that case, most of the blocks in the device are turned off in the interchirp idle time to save power.

    4. You can use Low power ADC mode (half rate ADC mode), but this puts a limitation on the usable IF bandwidth. Please refer to the mmWave Interface Control document for that.

    5. Using a real only complex chain can also help here.

    So its basically weighing various factors now. Obviously each of them come with a cost and have their own pros and cons, but these are some of the ways in which power can be optimized.

    Let me know if you need further clarification on any of the above points.

    Regards,

    Ishita

  • 0 in reply to Ishita Kochar
    Intellectual 810 points

    Hi

    Thanks for your quick response, but the method that you propose can not help too much, the problem is : even though it is in idle ( after finish transmite TLV data from UART and before next chirping) the power consumption on the PMIC input voltage (3.3V) is still about 300mA. How can I reduce that current? I use frame period 200mS, and the idle time is about 170ms, so that is very very important to reduce that current when idle.

  • 0 in reply to chianan chang
    Intellectual 810 points

    Hi Ishita

    I did not get your response for the reply that I had.

    Another method I want to try is to have an external MCU to control the power of the AWR1843, let the external MCU power off the Radar immediately after it receive the data of the first frame, and than wait about 200mS to power on the AWR1843 periodly. If I can reduce the booting timme below 100ms than I can save about  of the power consumption.

    I follow the thread https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors/f/sensors-forum/773531/rtos-awr1642-boot-up-initialization-time on the AWR1843BOOST, but fine the booting time + sensor start take about 658ms. I do not know is that possible to reduce to below 100ms. 

    Attached photo is the captured signal timming of the AWR1843 booting, the BIN is based on industrial toobox _4_5_1 traffic monitor ,it looks like the time from PGOOD to QSPI flash working take about 46.736ms ( T->A), after bootloader finish the download to CLI write Banner take about 15.104mS( B->C), After CLI banner to Radar finish start ( configure is saved in Flash, not from CLI Command ) take about 53.07ms(C-<D). 

    How can I reduce the time of T->A? ( it is relate to ROM boot loader)

    How can I reduce the time of A->B(41.984mS)? The bin file ( MSS+DSS) is about 387KB. ( except to reduce the bin file, any other method?)

    How can I reduce the time of C->D?( I will remove all of the CLI_Write, to reduce the time that UART spend, but any other method can reduce? I already use customize calibrate with mask 0, to simulate if I can load the calibrated data and not need to calibrate every power on)

  • 0 in reply to chianan chang
    TI__Guru 69480 points

    Hello,

    Booting time (T->A)can not be changes in the device. As bootloader does sets of boot time test and then loads the binary file from sFlash over QSPI. 

    A->B:  APart from reducing the bin size, there is not other possibility.

    C->D: remove CLI option, hard code all the configurations, so application configures BSS as soon as it is booted. remove all unwanted features from the application will cut some of the time.

    And for your purpose of time and power optimization, I would recommend you to look for IWR6843 where it has much power optimization compare to AWR1843 device.

    You can create a seperate thread with IWR6843 device option and post your queries on different ideas of power optimization. There are many e2e thread on the similar topic. Use search engine  'e2e.ti.com: IWR6843 power optimization'

    Regards,

    Jitendra