From vehicles to the factory, sensors create a smarter world

After introducing what is claimed to be the world's most precise mmWave single-chip, CMOS sensor, Texas Instruments is mass producting its highly integrated, ultra-wideband AWR1642 and IWR1642 mmWave sensors. These sensors support frequencies from 76GHz to 81GHz and deliver three times more accurate sensing and the smallest footprint at a fraction of the power of competing sensor technologies. Thousands of customers are developing with the company's mmWave sensors to enable innovation in automotive and industrial applications, including vehicle occupancy detection, people counting in buildings, machine and human interaction and more. Engineers are using the company's radar sensors, which will first appear in vehicles on the road in late 2018, to allow new ADAS applications. Expanding outside of ADAS, engineers are using the automotive-qualified AWR1642 sensor to detect free space and obstacles near doors and trunks, occupancy detection inside the cabin, intruder alert and smarter automated parking. The company is also offers a common SDK and design resources to help speed development time. For example, the Vehicle Occupant Detection Reference Design provides a system-level overview and software examples for using the AWR1642 sensor to detect people inside a vehicle. Moving beyond automotive, engineers across a variety of industrial market sectors are rapidly innovating. With new applications for the technology emerging daily, customers are using the sensors to create smarter and more efficient cities, buildings and machines.