Mouser shipping Texas Instruments’ mmWave sensors for industrial

The sensors are supplied in a 0.65mm pitch, 161-pin 10.4×10.4mm flip chip BGA package.

Among the target applications for these devices are the low-power, self-monitored, ultra-accurate radar hardware used in building and factory automation systems, as well as for traffic monitoring, materials handling, people detection/counting and intelligent robotics.

The IWR1843 radar sensors are single-chip frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) devices supporting operation in the 76-81GHz mmWave spectrum.

The RFCMOS process employed enables monolithic implementation of a system with three transmit (TX) and four receive (RX) channels, plus built-in phase lock loop (PLL) and analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs).

The sensors have digital signal processor (DSP) subsystems embedded into them for radar signal processing purposes. These are based on TI’s C674x DSP cores.

In addition, built-in self-test processor subsystems take responsibility for radio configuration, control and calibration activities.

Each sensor also has an on-board user-programmable Cortex-R4F processor for undertaking object tracking/classification, Autosar and interface control.

Mouser also stocks the IWR1843 booster pack, an evaluation board with direct connectivity to TI’s launch pad development platform.

The pack contains on-board emulation for programming and debugging, as well as buttons and LEDs for quick integration of a simple user interface to start developing software for the on-chip C67x DSP core and low-power Arm Cortex-R4F controller.