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Sensing the World More Accurately with TI mmWave Radar Technology
mmWave radar sensing excels in offering autonomy, automation, safety, and energy efficiency.
Engineers can employ radar in applications ranging from people counting, which has revolutionized retail analytics without compromising privacy, to obstacle avoidance, which enables drone navigation systems to maneuver around trees and power lines.
Radar’s Core Capabilities
Range measurement
Range measurement
TI’s frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) sensors offer a combination of RF, analog, and digital electronic components necessary for detecting range over 100 m using a chirp signal.
Velocity measurement
Velocity measurement
FMCW radar transmits multiple chirp signals to measure velocity, with reflected chirps processed using fast Fourier transforms (FFT) to extract phase and calculate distance per unit time.
Angle measurement
Angle measurement
FMCW radar estimates angle of arrival (AoA) by measuring phase shifts between two receiving antennas. The maximum AoA defines the field of view.
Radar Benefits
Radar’s range, velocity, and angle measurement capabilities provide significant benefits, extending from its ability to penetrate fog and darkness to its non-intrusiveness.
Overcoming poor visibility
Overcoming poor visibility
Radar outshines optical systems in fog, smoke, dust, and darkness. Unlike cameras, radar waves can penetrate obstacles as well as adverse weather, making radar an invaluable tool in applications requiring high reliability and accuracy — from automotive safety systems to industrial monitoring — where clear vision cannot always be guaranteed.
Enhancing reliability and safety
Enhancing reliability and safety
Radar plays a pivotal role in advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) and robotics. In automotive applications, radar enhances situational awareness and contributes to safer navigation and collision avoidance by enabling emergency braking, blind-spot detection, and in-cabin monitoring. In robotics, it aids in obstacle detection and navigation, ensuring the safety of machines and the humans working alongside them.
Boosting energy efficiency
Boosting energy efficiency
In applications such as TVs, HVAC systems, lighting, video doorbells, and gates, radar can detect the presence and absence of people, adjusting power usage accordingly. This intelligent resource management saves energy, reduces carbon footprints, and lowers operational costs. By automating the control of various systems, radar technology supports sustainable, eco-friendly products and sustainable building designs.
Protecting privacy
Protecting privacy
Unlike cameras, radar does not capture detailed images of individuals. Its non-intrusive means of detection and interaction make radar the ideal choice for environments where privacy is a concern, including homes, workplaces, and public spaces requiring occupancy sensing. Developers can rely on radar for vital signs monitoring, presence and fall detection, and gesture recognition to design products that respect user privacy while delivering advanced functionalities. Radar offers the optimal balance between innovation and privacy to enhance consumer trust and broaden the acceptance of smart technologies in sensitive applications.
Improving the user experience
Improving the user experience
Radar technology significantly improves the human-machine interface (HMI). Features like gesture recognition allow humans to interact with devices without physical contact, contributing to convenience and improved hygiene in shared spaces. In consumer electronics and home automation, radar enables more intuitive and responsive products, meeting the growing demand for smart, user-friendly technology.
Radar Applications
Radar’s ability to overcome poor visibility, enhance reliability and safety, boost energy efficiency, and protect privacy can enable a wide range of applications in the home, office, or even parking lot.
TI’s radar can act as a power-saving companion to a doorbell video camera, and it can establish a zone of safety around a robot. It can also non-intrusively detect falls and enable hands-free opening of a vehicle’s trunk.
Video doorbell
TI’s IWRL6432 radar can work with a doorbell camera to enable a low-power solution. When the radar detects the presence of one or more individuals, the camera awakens from its power-saving mode and begins transmitting video. The radar can track three or more people simultaneously and detect presences up to 20 m with a 140° field of view. It can also classify human versus nonhuman presences.
Robot safety bubble
TI’s IWR6843 radar sensors can establish a 360° surround-view zone for a robot, enabling the robot to detect and react to pallets, carts, humans, and other items you might find in a factory or warehouse. A robot can detect an approaching human and slow down and stop when the human enters predefined warning and danger zones, respectively.
Intelligent fall detection
TI’s IWR6843AOP 60-GHz antenna-on-package radar sensor can detect falls and distinguish between sitting and falling. It utilizes a point cloud — not a person’s identifiable features — allowing its use in areas where privacy is vital, such as bedrooms and bathrooms, where it can detect motion behind a shower curtain.
Kick to open
Shoppers with their hands full can open their car’s trunk hands-free using gesture detection enabled by TI’s 77-GHz AWRL1432 radar sensor. It can detect a trunk-opening kicking gesture up to 1 m away over a 120° field of view through rain, snow, and fog while preventing false detections.
TV presence detected
TVs often operate when no one is watching, wasting energy. A 60-GHz radar sensor can detect the absence of viewers and turn off the set. When one or more viewers are present, the sensor can optimize image and audio quality to enhance the viewer experience. In addition, the sensor can count the number of people viewing a particular show to provide better data for service and content providers. Finally, the sensor detects when viewers walk away and can initiate system log-off to enhance security.
TI mmWave Technology
At TI, we help customers sense the world more accurately with a broad portfolio of sensing products supported by exceptional design and development resources. Our mmWave radar sensors, available in low-cost and low-power variants, offer unique capabilities for applications extending from video doorbells to television presence detection.
Why choose TI mmWave Technology
Performance innovations
Performance innovations
Our high-resolution radar technology with integrated digital processing enables low-power sensing applications with edge intelligence and can withstand harsh environmental conditions.
Radar in more applications
Radar in more applications
Our portfolio of 60- and 77-GHz sensors enables everything from low-power simple motion detection to high-end imaging, allowing engineers to build intelligent, efficient, user-friendly applications.
Ease of use
Ease of use
We simplify radar design challenges by reducing engineering obstacles with our complete system-on-chip (SoC) and antenna-on-package radar sensors.
Additional Resources
Proximity sensing’s role
in enabling emerging markets
in enabling emerging markets
Proximity sensors enable autonomy and automation while ensuring safety and energy efficiency. Choosing the right proximity-sensing technology will help ensure optimal designs for people-counting, fall-detection, and collision-avoidance applications.
View ArticleOpens in a new window.The fundamentals of
millimeter wave sensors
millimeter wave sensors
Texas Instruments’ mmWave CMOS-based radar devices integrate essential data converters as well as RF and analog components to reduce power consumption and cost. These devices utilize frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar technology to continuously measure range, angle, and velocity.
Read MoreOpens in a new window.TIDA-010254 Battery-powered mmWave radar sensor with sub-1-GHz and Bluetooth 5.2 reference design
This industrial reference design demonstrates the use of a Li-battery-powered IWRL6432 60-GHz mmWave radar with sub-1 GHz or Bluetooth® 5.2 wireless communication. It has been demonstrated with people-counting and tracking and other motion-tracking applications. The design is compatible with any existing IWRL6432 software.
Learn MoreOpens in a new window.