‘Single chip’ radar sensor for automotive satellite architectures
Texas Instruments has developed a radar front end in a single package with a new architecture that can be used for front and side sensing.
The AWR2544 is a cost optimised radar with a 71-86GHz front end radar chip connected via a waveguide to a second chip with an ARM Cortex-R5F microcontroller core. The front end uses a direct signal transmission through waveguide on the PCB to increase accuracy and minimise noise that TI calls launch-on-package (LOP) technology. LOP technology helps reduce the size of the sensor by as much as 30% by mounting a 3D waveguide antenna on the opposite side of the printed circuit board.
The processor chip in the package has a 1G Ethernet interface for compressed FFT data that allows more radar sensors around the vehicle feeding data to a central processing unit and the package is certified to ASIL-B.
“We see OEMs wanting to move to the software defined vehicle and zone architectures to enable more personalisation for drivers as part of their differentiation,” said Fern Yoon Director of Automotive Systems Engineering at TI.
The 76 – 81GHz radar sensor can be used for front facing radar systems with an additional processor such as the TI TDA4 Jacinto processor or the next generation processors and a high power power management chip to provide a range of 200m.
It can also be used for satellite radar sensing without additional processing for a shorter range while reducing the overall cost of the sensing.
“We optimise it through a radar processor that allows multiple radars to be connected together,” she said. “We recommend using an external PMIC as it depends on how it is being used whether for long range or satellite and we want customers to optimise it based on their use case.”
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