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01 · THE BUILDING BLOCK

One board. A complete radar.

The subarray board is the modular unit of the whole REPLICAR architecture: two cascaded AWR2243, an FPGA stream combiner and an automotive serializer — everything the front end needs, on one PCB with a single cable leaving it.

2×
AWR2243 MMICS
6×8
TX × RX
48
VIRTUAL ANTENNAS
1×
A-PHY LINK OUT
02 · BOARD TOPOLOGY

Everything on board. One cable out.

Two AWR2243 stream CSI-2 into the on-board FPGA combiner, which merges them into a single 2-VC stream for the Valens VA70xx serializer. The STM32L5 configures both MMICs over SPI as TI mmWaveLink host and stays reachable out-of-band over I²C — so exactly one A-PHY link leaves the board.

Cascade-M. LO SOURCE HOST I²C · OUT-OF-BAND SUBARRAY BOARD 6T × 8R · λ/2 GRID · 48 VIRT. ANT. AWR2243 · a 3 TX · 4 RX AWR2243 · b 3 TX · 4 RX 2× CSI-2 COMB · FPGA 2× CSI-2 → 1 · 2 VC SER · VA70xx VALENS · A-PHY STM32L5 TI mmWaveLink HOST SPI PWR · DEDICATED SUPPLY OR POWER-OVER-A-PHY 1× A-PHY OUT CABLE ~15 m · 4.6 GBIT/S SPI / I²C · CONTROL LO · CASCADE MASTER CSI-2 A-PHY · 1 LINK PER BOARD
One link, fifteen metres of cable.The single A-PHY link carries 4.6 Gbit/s over ~15 m of automotive cable — that is cable length between board and Jetson, not sensing range. Power can ride the same cable via Power-over-A-PHY, or come from a dedicated supply.
Control stays out-of-band.The STM32L5 drives both AWR2243 over SPI as TI mmWaveLink host; the system reaches it over a separate I²C path — so configuration and status never compete with the IQ stream for bandwidth.
03 · ANTENNA & PROCESSING

λ/2 inside. Clean beams out.

Six transmitters and eight receivers span 48 virtual antennas on an internally λ/2-accurate grid — the precondition for artefact-free angle estimation.

λ/2 by construction.Each AWR2243 contributes 3 TX and 4 RX; together 6 TX × 8 RX form 48 virtual antennas with λ/2-accurate spacing across the whole board.
Capon per subarray.Because the grid is complete, Capon beamforming runs free of grating lobes — which is exactly why it runs strictly per subarray: the gaps between subarrays would introduce them.
Autonomous or coherent.A board runs stand-alone as a complete radar, or phase-locked in the array — where the cross-coherent aperture stays available for advanced processing across boards.
04 · DATA & PRESETS

Radar frames as video frames.

The board delivers raw 12-bit IQ as RAW12 (FourCC RG12 — not Bayer). Two driver modes frame the stream; the chirp configuration sets the rate.

RAW12 · DRIVER MODES

One format. Two modes.

FORMAT
RAW12 · FourCC RG12 · 12-bit IQ
MODE0
2048 × 384 · 1.13 MB/frame
MODE1
2048 × 1536 · 4.5 MB/frame
FRAME RATE
10–100 Hz
SET BY
framePeriodicity in the chirp config — not the driver
8 TESTED MEASUREMENT PRESETS · HOT-SWAP AT RUNTIME

Reconfigure without rebooting.

Presets swap at runtime via browser UI or I²C: the STM32L5 pauses the front end, loads the new chirp configuration over mmWaveLink and resumes the stream.

3.07 GHz → 4.88 CM RESOLUTION · ~30 M 500 MHz → 30 CM RESOLUTION · 200+ M TDM · TDM+PHASE · BPM-MIMO · ALL-ON · SINGLE-TX TX SCHEMES PAUSE → RECONFIG → RESUME VIA BROWSER UI / I²C
05 · SCALING

One board is a radar. Eight are an aperture.

Board count is a parameter, not a redesign: a single subarray is a complete stand-alone sensor, N boards phase-lock into one coherent array.

1 BOARD · STAND-ALONE

A complete radar

VIRTUAL ANTENNAS
48 · λ/2
TX × RX
6 × 8
CONTROL
STM32L5 · SPI / I²C
OUTPUT
1× A-PHY · 4.6 Gbit/s
POWER
dedicated or Power-over-A-PHY
N BOARDS · COHERENT ARRAY

Up to 8 subarrays — and beyond

VIRTUAL ANTENNAS
up to 3072 · cross-coherent
TX × RX
48 × 64
LO
cascade master · 8/0 · 7/1 · 4/3/1
OUTPUT
8× A-PHY → Jetson
SEE THE FULL SYSTEM →

Modular by design.

From a single subarray to the full 8-subarray system — architecture, firmware and software scale by configuration, not redesign. We serve any configuration on request.

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