SPRADM3 March   2025 AWR1243 , AWR1642 , AWR1843 , AWR1843AOP , AWR2243 , AWR2544 , AWR2944 , AWR2944P , AWR6443 , AWR6843 , AWR6843AOP , AWRL1432 , AWRL6432 , IWR2944

 

  1.   1
  2.   Abstract
  3.   Trademarks
  4. 1Introduction
  5. 2Terminology
  6. 3Discover Phase
    1. 3.1 What is a mmWave Sensor?
    2. 3.2 Why are mmWave Sensors Required in Automotive and ADAS?
    3. 3.3 Understanding Frequency Choice and Regulations
    4. 3.4 What is Imaging Radar?
    5. 3.5 How to Check TI Portfolio and Select Product?
      1. 3.5.1 Selecting a Part Based on Application
  7. 4Evaluation Phase
    1. 4.1 Hardware
      1. 4.1.1 EVM
      2. 4.1.2 DCA1000EVM
    2. 4.2 Software and Tools
      1. 4.2.1 Software Development Kits (SDK)
      2. 4.2.2 Radar Toolbox
      3. 4.2.3 mmWave DFP
      4. 4.2.4 mmWave Sensing Estimator
      5. 4.2.5 mmWave Studio
      6. 4.2.6 Code Composer Studio™
      7. 4.2.7 UniFlash
    3. 4.3 Find and Select the Right Partner Resource
  8. 5Development Phase
    1. 5.1 Primary and Secondary Bootloader
    2. 5.2 SDK
    3. 5.3 Compilers
    4. 5.4 RF Front-end Configurations and mmWave DFP
    5. 5.5 Safety Aspects
    6. 5.6 Security Aspects
    7. 5.7 Signal Processing Chain
      1. 5.7.1 How Can FMCW Radars Be Used?
    8. 5.8 MCAL and Autosar
    9. 5.9 Hardware Module Design
  9. 6Production Phase
    1. 6.1 Calibration
    2. 6.2 mmWave Production Testing
    3. 6.3 FCC and RED Compliance
    4. 6.4 Functional Safety Certification
    5. 6.5 Quality Process and Customer Returns
      1. 6.5.1 Customer Return Process
      2. 6.5.2 Reference
    6. 6.6 OTP KeyWriter
  10. 7Summary
  11. 8References

5.4 RF Front-end Configurations and mmWave DFP

General Functional Block Diagram for Radar Figure 5-2 General Functional Block Diagram for Radar

Figure 5-2 is a general functional block diagram of the Radar sub-system of a TI mmWave sensor. The sub-system is a mix of analog and digital components. The mmWave DFP is a device firmware package for TI mmWave sensors which provides firmware, ROM patches and API. These provide seamless control and configuration for the RF operation in real-time and allow periodic scheduling of calibration and functional safety monitoring. This enables the RF transceiver to be self-contained and capable of adapting to dynamic conditions, such as temperature changes, and minimize external intervention an external host perspective.

The mmWave device firmware package (DFP) is split in three broad components: mmWave Firmware, mmWaveLink and mmWave RF evaluation.

mmWave Firmware

mmWave Firmware is responsible for configuring RF and analog, digital front end in TI mmWave radar devices and consists of the following component:

  • Radar SS firmware

All the services of Radar SS firmware are available to user programmble cores or sub-system like the Main SS or DSP SS (if applicable for the device) using the APIs in the mmWaveLink framework.

mmWavelink

The mmWaveLink framework acts as driver for the Radar sub-system. The mmWaveLink framework exposes a suite of low-level APIs that allow applications to enable, configure, and control the Radar SS. The mmWaveLink framework provides a well-defined platform and OS abstraction for the application to plug in the communication driver and OS routine callbacks to communicate with the TI mmWave devices.

mmWave RF Evaluation

For mmWave RF and system evaluation purpose, mmWave Studio Tool which is designed to communicate with all variants of TI mmWave devices for RF and system performance evaluation can be used. The RF evaluation provides the firmware that is to be programmed onto the sensor to use the studio tool.

Note: The DFP user's guide is an important document that helps users comprehend the front-end configurations and advane features of the device. The user's guide provides more information on the link test example which can be used by the developers to check a reference implmentation of using the mmWavelink framework, and most of the mmWave DFP APIs. The example code provides a framework on using most of the device front end features and must always be checked by developers. The user guide can be found at the following path:
ti\mmwave_mcuplus_sdk_04_xx_xx_xx\mmwave_dfp_02_xx_xx_xx\docs
Note: The ICD (Interface Control Document) define interface control specifications for TI’s mmWave sensors. This is a must read document for both front end and SOC devices to understand the communication protocol with the radar sub system. The ICD path is as follows:
ti\mmwave_mcuplus_sdk_04_xx_xx_xx\mmwave_dfp_02_xx_xx_xx\docs

TI Reference Collaterals