mmWave chip portfolio offers precision radar sensing for automotive and industrial applications

The AWR and IWR families of mmWave sensors are based on Texas Instruments’ 45-nm RFCMOS process and bring the entire RF, analog, and digital signal processing chain into a single die. Working in the 76- to 81-GHz range, these sensors suit automotive (AWR) and industrial (IWR) applications, providing multiple transmitters- and receivers-on-chip. Each chip delivers standalone sensing with less than a 4-cm range resolution, range accuracy down to less than 50 μm, and range up to 300 m.

Radio frequency operation allows these sensors to work through plastic, dry wall, clothing, glass, and many other materials, making them usable in a wide range of situations. As automotive long-range radar, for instance, they can detect dynamic objects (cars, motorcycles, etc.) with less than 1° angular accuracy even if moving at 300 km/h. As liquid-level sensors, they can provide an accuracy of less than 100 μ.

The devices are fully integrated with sensors, RF front end, MCU, and DSP in a single die and are available in a 10.4 x 10.4-mm package. This integration ensures both a smaller footprint and lower power than existing discrete designs. The chips also come with a full support package, including sample algorithms, software libraries, and a software development kit (SDK) that reduces RF design to 20 simple APIs.