Applications such as occupancy sensing, people tracking, smart building automation and touchless user interfaces increasingly rely on mmWave radar technology. Compared to optical sensors, radar operates reliably in darkness, dust, smoke and changing environmental conditions while preserving user privacy.
At the same time, modern radar chipsets have become remarkably powerful. Texas Instruments’ IWRL6432 integrates the radar frontend, processing resources and communication interfaces required to implement sophisticated radar applications on a single device.
The new V-LD3 from RFbeam builds on this platform and combines factory-calibrated RF hardware, integrated antennas and compatibility with TI’s MMWAVE-L-SDK and Radar Toolbox in a compact 20 × 25 mm SMT module designed for direct OEM integration.
The Challenge of Moving from Evaluation to Production
Many radar projects begin with a TI evaluation kit and a proof-of-concept implementation. The available software examples and development tools allow engineers to quickly explore radar technology and validate application concepts.
However, moving from a successful evaluation towards a production-ready product often introduces additional challenges related to RF integration, antenna implementation, calibration, mechanical design, certification and manufacturing.
As a result, RFbeam is frequently contacted at a late project stage, when significant development effort has already been invested and major architectural decisions have already been made.
The V-LD3 was developed specifically to simplify this transition. By combining production-ready hardware, factory calibration and compatibility with TI’s radar ecosystem, developers can start evaluating radar functionality immediately while maintaining a clear path towards product integration and mass production.
Built on the TI mmWave Ecosystem
The V-LD3 leverages the complete TI development ecosystem including:
- MMWAVE-L-SDK
- Radar Toolbox
- Industrial Visualizer
- Application examples
- Tuning guides
- Development tools
This allows developers familiar with TI radar devices to immediately use existing tools, workflows and software frameworks.
The same software examples used during evaluation can later be deployed on the V-LD3 platform without changing the underlying software architecture.
Compact Production-Ready Radar Platform
The V-LD3 integrates the complete radar frontend including antennas, RF circuitry, processing resources and communication interfaces into a compact 20 × 25 mm SMT module.
Key features include:
- Factory-tested and calibrated hardware
- Production-ready SMT module
- Integrated antennas
- 2 TX / 3 RX architecture
- 110° × 50° Field of View
- UART, SPI, I2C, CAN-FD and JTAG interfaces
- SMT and FFC integration options
- FCC and CE optimized antenna design
Unlike traditional radar evaluation boards, the V-LD3 is intended for direct integration into end products.
Each module is factory tested and calibrated before shipment. Calibration datasets are stored directly inside the module and can be loaded through a CLI command, ensuring consistent radar performance across production volumes.
For rapid evaluation and development, RFbeam also offers the V-LD3-EVAL. The evaluation board provides convenient access to UART, SPI, CAN-FD, JTAG and GPIO interfaces through dedicated test points and a USB-C connection, allowing engineers to begin evaluating radar functionality and developing application software immediately.
Motion and Presence Detection Out of the Box
Every V-LD3 module is delivered preprogrammed with RFbeam’s enhanced version of Texas Instruments’ Motion and Presence Detection Demo, featuring automatic loading of factory calibration data and optimized radar configurations for the V-LD3 platform.
The demo already provides a complete radar processing chain including:
- Presence detection
- Motion detection
- 3D point cloud generation
- Multi-target tracking
- Human / non-human classification
The radar output can be visualized directly using TI’s Industrial Visualizer and configured through standard CLI commands and configuration files.
For many occupancy sensing, people tracking and smart building applications, the supplied firmware already provides a powerful starting point for rapid prototyping and evaluation.
RFbeam further provides multiple radar configurations optimized for the V-LD3, including automatic loading of factory calibration data.
Flexible Integration Concept
One of the key advantages of the V-LD3 is its scalable integration concept. Depending on project requirements, developers can choose different levels of customization while continuing to use the same hardware platform:
Standard Host-Controlled Applications
Configure radar behaviour through application-specific configuration files while processing point cloud or tracked target data on an external processor.
Use the preprogrammed Motion and Presence Detection Demo together with RFbeam’s optimized configurations as a starting point and fine tune them for your application.
Customized Firmware
Extend TI’s motion and presence demo with application-specific functionality such as CAN communication, local decision making or custom interfaces.
Use RFbeam’s enhanced motion and presence detection demo with automatic calibration loading from the flash as a starting point.
Full Custom Signal Processing
Develop completely customized radar algorithms while continuing to use the same production-ready radar hardware platform.
This allows projects to evolve from initial evaluation to production deployment without redesigning the radar hardware.
RFbeam can support customers with custom firmware development, radar signal processing and application-specific algorithm design.
Beyond the Default Demo
While the Motion and Presence Detection Demo already covers the requirements of many applications, the compatibility with TI’s Radar Toolbox enables the V-LD3 to serve as a starting point for many additional radar applications.
| Radar Toolbox Example | Typical Application |
|---|---|
| Vital Signs | Contactless breathing and heart-rate monitoring |
| Pose and Fall Detection | Assisted living and AI sensing |
| True Ground Speed | Ground speed measurement |
| Gesture Recognititon | Touchless human-machine interfaces |
| Small Obstacle Detection | Robotics and automation |
| Video Doorbell | Smart home presence sensing |
These examples demonstrate the flexibility of the underlying radar platform and provide valuable starting points for custom developments.
Conclusion
The V-LD3 combines RFbeam’s expertise in radar hardware design, antenna integration and factory calibration with the powerful software ecosystem provided by Texas Instruments.
The result is a compact and production-ready 60GHz mmWave radar module that enables developers to rapidly evaluate radar technology, implement advanced sensing applications and build customized radar solutions on a proven hardware platform.
Whether used as a ready-to-integrate motion and presence sensor or as the foundation for fully customized radar developments, the V-LD3 provides a practical path from first evaluation to mass production.
