SPRACV2 November   2020 AWR1843 , AWR2243

 

  1.   Trademarks
  2. 1Introduction
    1. 1.1 Background – Simple Single-Chip Applications
  3. 2Cascade Incoherence Sources and Mitigation Strategies
    1. 2.1 PCB Routing Imbalances and Device Processes
    2. 2.2 Temperature Drifts
    3. 2.3 Scheduling of Run Time Calibrations
  4. 3Enabling Cascade Coherence and Improved Phase Performance
    1. 3.1 High-Level Summary
      1. 3.1.1 Sequence of Proposed Steps and Introductory Flow Diagrams
    2. 3.2 Saving RF INIT Calibration Results at Customer Factory
      1. 3.2.1 Note on LODIST Calibration
      2. 3.2.2 TX Phase Shifter Calibration and Saving Results at Customer Factory
    3. 3.3 Corner Reflector-Based Offsets Measurement at Customer Factory
      1. 3.3.1 Corner Reflector-Based Inter-Channel Imbalances
      2. 3.3.2 Corner Reflector-Based TX Phase Shifter Errors
    4. 3.4 Restoring Customer Calibration Results In-Field
      1. 3.4.1 Restore RF INIT Calibrations Results In-Field
      2. 3.4.2 Restore TX Phase Shift Calibration Results In-Field
    5. 3.5 Host-Based Temperature Calibrations In-Field
      1. 3.5.1 Disabling AWR Devices’ Autonomous Run Time Calibrations
      2. 3.5.2 Enabling Host-Based Temperature Calibrations of Inter-Channel Imbalances
      3. 3.5.3 Switching of DSP Imbalance Data
      4. 3.5.4 Enabling TX Phase Shifter’s Host-Based Temperature Calibrations
        1. 3.5.4.1 Estimating TX Phase Shift Values at Any Temperature
        2. 3.5.4.2 Temperature Correction LUTs for AWR1843TX Phase Shifter
        3. 3.5.4.3 Temperature Correction LUTs for AWR2243 TX Phase Shifter
        4. 3.5.4.4 Restoring TX Phase Shift Values – Format Conversion
        5. 3.5.4.5 Restoring TX Phase Shift Values – Transition Timing and Constraints
        6. 3.5.4.6 Typical Post-Calibration TX Phase Shifter Accuracies
        7. 3.5.4.7 Correcting for Temperature Drift While Sweeping Across Phase Settings
        8. 3.5.4.8 Amplitude Stability Across Phase Shifter Settings
        9. 3.5.4.9 Impact of Customer PCB’s 20-GHz Sync Path Attenuation on TX Phase Shifters
      5. 3.5.5 Ambient and Device Temperatures
  5. 4Concept Illustrations
  6. 5Miscellaneous (Interference, Gain Variation, Sampling Jitter)
    1. 5.1 Handling Interference In-Field
    2. 5.2 Information on TX Power and RX Gain Drift with Temperature
    3. 5.3 Jitter Between Chirp Start and ADC Sampling Start
  7. 6Conclusion
  8.   A Appendix
    1.     A.1 Terminology
    2.     A.2 References
    3.     A.3 Flow Diagrams for Proposed Cascade Coherence Scheme
    4.     A.4 LUTs for TX Phase Shifter Temperature Drift Mitigation
    5.     A.5 Circular Shift of TX Phase Shifter Calibration Data Save and Restore APIs

1 Introduction

Gen1 (AWR1243, AWR1843, AWR1642, and AWR1443) and Gen2 (AWR2243) radar devices include self-calibrations to mitigate process and temperature effects on analog performance. The calibrations include RF INIT (i.e., boot time) calibrations to mitigate manufacturing process variation effects, and Run Time calibrations to mitigate temperature effects. These calibrations mostly involve optimizing the RF register settings for TX, RX, and LO-based on the temperature read by the built-in temperature sensors. In simple single-chip usage context, these self-calibrations achieve the purpose of analog performance stabilization without compromising on inter-channel imbalances due to inherent channel matching within each device.

Maintaining inter-channel matching in multi-device cascaded sensors is more challenging due to manufacturing process mismatches across devices and independence of the self-calibration procedures running in the multiple devices. This note describes recommendations to improve a cascade system’s coherence across time and temperature and involves more control of AWR devices by the host processor on the sensor. Further, the recommended procedures may also be used in advanced single chip applications which desire stability of the radar return signal’s absolute phases across radar frames, devoid of abrupt jumps.

Further, the recommendations in this note also address the topic of avoiding corruption of the self-calibration results when the device operates in interference-prone environments. Note that the same is also briefly explained in Self-Calibration in TI’s mmWave Radar Devices (SPRACF4), applicable in single chip usages. Finally, another important topic addressed in this note is TX phase shifters (AWR1843 and AWR2243). Their accuracies can be improved with calibrations at customer factory as well as in field, and this note describes relevant recommendations.