D3 Engineering Announces Automotive Antenna-on-Package mmWave Sensors with Texas Instruments RFIC

April 29, 2021

News

D3 Engineering, a Texas Instruments platinum design partner, announced their DesignCore RS-1843AOP and RS-1843AOPU mmWave Radar Sensors.

These miniature sensors enable the implementation of different mmWave radar algorithms to measure, detect, and track. The production-intent sensors feature a 1-inch cube form factor, heat-spreading metal body, and mounting tabs. They may be used with a PC or embedded platform to facilitate field testing, sensing evaluation, algorithm development, and application demonstrations. 

Automotive applications supported by these sensors include parking assist and collision avoidance. Other applications supported by these sensors include robotics, autonomous machines, industrial vehicle systems, facility monitoring, and people counting and tracking. The sensors can also be used in many other use cases with a tethered host processor or stand-alone. 

The sensors feature the TI AWR1843AOP, a single-chip 77-GHz automotive radar sensor integrating a DSP, an MCU, radar accelerator, as well as an antenna array built right into the package. The AWR1843AOP RF front end integrates a PLL, three transmitters, four receivers, and a baseband ADC. It covers 77 GHz with bandwidths up to 4 GHz and features 12 dBm transmit power and noise figure 15 dB or better across the band. The processing cores in the AWR6843AOP include a C674x DSP for FMCW signal processing, a hardware accelerator for radar cube processing, and a Cortex-R4F microcontroller for object tracking, classification, and communications. 

The RS-1843AOP features a header for connection to optional baseboards or hosts providing additional interfaces and functionality. Included on this interface are I2C, SPI, GPIO and UART connections. The main interface of the RS-1843AOPU version is a USB-C connector which can act as a power supply input as well as enumerating two serial UARTS, one for console and the other for processed radar returns or other algorithm output. 

The sensors include custom firmware ensuring board support for the latest version of the SDK from TI.

For additional specifications and drawings download the DesignCore Antenna on Package mmWave Radar Sensors Datasheet  

The RS-1843AOPU sensor is featured in the Door Opening Radar demo on D3 Engineering’s Virtual D.A.V.E. (Demonstrator of Autonomous Vehicle Equipment) Demo. Video footage of the Door Opening Radar demo in action can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml33LcJAn5g  

The DesignCore RS-1843AOPU mmWave Radar Sensor is $349 and available for order online at https://www.d3engineering.com/product/designcore-rs-1843aopu-mmwave-radar-sensor/    

For more information, visit: www.D3Engineering.com.