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

5.5 Safety Aspects

The automotive radar sensors are safety capable and ASIL B qualified by Technischer Überwachungsverein (TÜV) SÜD. This section describes the functional safety of radar sensors.

What is Functional Safety?

Functional safety is the reduction of unnecessary risk due to hazards caused by the malfunctioning behavior of E/E systems. The goal is to reduce the risk to an acceptable risk level.

Why Functional Safety?

As the automotive markets become more autonomous, the automotive manufacturers(OEMs, Tier1, Silicon supplier) face an increasing need to meet stricter functional safety standards. Global NCAP sets these standards to make cars and driving safer. These standards are designed to minimize equipment failures and physical injury. Meeting the standards increases consumer confidence, proves reliability and robustness of the vehicle in the market.

To address the potential failures, TI millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar devices are designed, implemented, and tested according to a hardware and software development process. The hardware and software development process are certified from Technischer Überwachungsverein (TÜV) SÜD to comply with ISO 26262 and IEC 61508. TI mmWave radar devices which are specifically designed for automotive applications are also certified by TÜV-SÜD to comply with the ISO 26262.

mmWave Safety Deliverables

TI provides various deliverables for functional safety development at customer end. The comprehensive list is provided below.

Table 5-1 Safety Deliverables
Name Confidentiality Type Accessibility
Device safety manual NDA required Document Secure resources
Safety Analysis Report FMEDA NDA required Document Secure resources
Device data sheet No NDA required Document ti.com
Monitoring application note NDA required Document Secure resources
Device firmware package No NDA required Software package ti.com
MCAL (applicable for selected devices) NDA required Software package Secure resources
Safety compiler qualification kit No NDA required Software package ti.com
Safety diagnostics library (applicable for selected devices) No NDA required Software package ti.com

All the safety related documents are mostly available by NDA process. To maintain confidentiality, the functional safety is not be discussed in detail in the document and information is only provided to get started with the functional safety development.

Note: Please check Section 8 to get started with the process.
Note: TI’s radar mmWave integrated chips (ICs) include hardware and firmware elements to enable monitoring of the mmWave, analog and digital sections. These built-in features are exposed to users through firmware APIs. The monitoring application note aims to help users build the software to program and use APIs to achieve the end-product’s safety goals. For this, this application note describes monitoring mechanisms, explains the programming options offered by the APIs, illustrates example post-processing of the monitoring reports produced by these APIs, and illustrates the reports in example programming conditions in TI’s internal labs. The monitoring application note must be referred to implement various available monitoring.
Note: The Safety Compiler Qualification Kit was developed to assist customers in qualifying custom use of the TI ARM, C6000, C7000 or C2000/CLA C/C++ Compiler to functional safety standards such as IEC 61508 and ISO 26262. Please refer to the link provided in the section below for all the details on the qualification steps and process.
Note: The mmWave sensors provides various safety mechanisms and features, as well as recommendations for usage of these safety mechanisms and features. The Software Diagnostic Library (SDL) provides interfaces to these safety mechanisms and features. The SDL provides these interfaces to assist in the development of software applications involving Functional Safety. The Software Diagnostics Library consists of different blocks for Error Capture and Safety Mechanisms. Error response is managed by the Application based on the device Safety requirements. The interface for the Application is in the form of software APIs. The SDL driver libraries can be directly used by the users to implement functional safety measures in the custom application. Please refer to the SDL package for further details.

TI Reference Collaterals