mmWave function and demo evaluation can be done by using TI's Single-chip 60GHz to 64GHz intelligent mmWave sensor integrating processing capability or Single-chip low-power 57GHz to 64GHz industrial mmWave radar sensor. However, for customers who have completed the demo evaluation and plan to do hardware design, please refer to TI's reference design Battery powered low-power, low cost mmWave radar solution. This design uses the IWRL6432 + CC1352 combination and aims to provide an option for customers with low power consumption and wireless data transmission. Figure 4-1 only gives a brief introduction to the IWRL6432 module.

Figure 4-1 TIDA-010254 block diagram

Power Design

The system power supply of IWRL6432 is divided into the following four types: 3-Rail (3.3V, 1.8V, 1.2V), 2Rail (3.3V, 1.8V), 2Rail (1.8V, 1.2V), 1Rail (1.8V) as seen in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2 IWRL6432 power supply

For low power consumption, use the power supply option on the left. If there is no requirement for low power consumption but a requirement for BOM cost, choose the power supply option on the right. The 3D PCB view of this IWRL6432 module is shown below, the PCB size is 41mm × 21mm. For detailed information, please refer to Battery-powered mmWave radar sensor with sub-1-GHz and Bluetooth® 5.2 reference design.

In many application scenarios, especially for battery power application, power consumption is a very important consideration and is also a concern for many customers when designing radar sensor systems. Low power consumption is one of the advantages of TI IWRL6432 module as shown in Figure 4-3. We also run some power consumption test of this board.

Figure 4-3 TIDA-010254 IWRL6432 module

Use Keysight 34460A multimeter and Keysight BenchVue software to record the current data and waveform. The test environment is shown in Figure 4-4. To run the motion detection power test, choose “motion_and_presence_detection_demo.appimage” from SDK to flash the radar device, and use the below configuration parameter to run this test.

Figure 4-4 IWRL6432 Module power consumption test

Using Keysight BenchVue software to see the test result. As shown in Figure 4-5, the average current is 988uA @3.3V, so the average power is 3.2mW.

Figure 4-5 Motion detection power consumption test