IWRL1432 pushes the envelop for IoT Level Sensing

IWRL1432 pushes the envelop for IoT Level Sensing

IWRL1432, announced yesterday (2023-Aug-03), pushes the envelop for IoT Level Sensing to low single digit mW power consumption while still offering mm precision over the full sensing range.

IWRL1432 is a?5-GHz bandwidth?single chip radar (MMIC) operating in the 77-GHz band defined in accordance with level probing radar standards(1), the?IWRL1432?extends the radar based IoT level sensing?IWRL6432?which covered the 60-GHz (ISM) band for level sensing.

This new devices requires?less than 20%?(i.e. < 1/5th) of the?IWR1443?power, which could already operate directly from a battery or the 4..20mA current loop.

At those new levels of powers, the range and link budget are still allowing level measurement of low Dk material such as oil and also offering?millimeter precision?required for custody transfer measurement.

Many new applications can benefit from this new levels of low power, taking IoT Level sensing to new levels.

A?WEBINAR?is available to learn more, to register click?here

Applications

• Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBC): IoT sensors can be deployed in tanks and storage containers to measure the level of liquids, pastes and semi-solids providing real-time data for inventory management and preventive maintenance.
• flood monitoring: IoT sensors placed in rivers, lakes, or flood-prone areas can measure water levels and send alerts during potential flood situations, enabling early warnings and appropriate responses
• fuel monitoring: IoT sensors can be installed in fuel tanks to monitor the level of fuel in real-time, ensuring timely refilling and preventing disruptions
• petro-chemical industry: IoT sensors are used to monitor the level of liquids or gases in pipelines, storage tanks, or wellheads, helping with inventory management, leak detection, and maintenance planning.
• smart farming: monitoring both the water level in irrigation systems, ensuring optimal water usage and preventing over- or under-watering of crops, as well as the level of food in feed silos for inventory cost optimisation.
• waste management: level sensing of sewage water enables early detection of blocks as well as potential flooding of waste water in clean water canals. IoT sensors in waste bins or dumpsters can detect the fill level, enabling efficient waste collection and reducing unnecessary trips for garbage trucks.

For those markets IWRL1432 pushes the envelop in terms of both performance and low power, enabling more IoT level sensing applications to be battery powered while at the same time bringing more capabilities to those applications.

IWRL1432 for liquids/pastes and granular materials level sensing with IBC

In logistics, the invention in 1992 of a solution for standardised shipment storage and distribution of liquids, pastes and granular materials named Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBC) a roughly 1000L standardised size container shipped on pallets for easy handling by forklifts has been driving a high growth for the logistics, with a?Data Bridge market report?estimating the growth to 7.3% between 2022 and 2029

For those IBC, the 77-GHz radar is uniquely positioned as it allows monitoring the level in the IBC through the plastics of the container. This enables the IoT level sensing to have the easiest installation from the top enhancing monitoring capabilities of distributed stock across multiple containers and sites.

Other benefits of IoT Level sensing for IBC include:

• Improved Production Capabilities: As the stock levels fall below the threshold, a trigger for timely refill is issue which helps prevent out-of-stock conditions.
• Leak Detection Control: a continuous drop in level of a a very small amount is a signature of leakage and if the products monitored are toxic or explosive a continuous monitoring is the only way to detect those.
• Tampering and Thefts Detection: IBC storing valuable commodities like fuel are highly vulnerable to theft and vandalism. Detection of un-scheduled level changes help prevent this from happening by offering the possibility to trigger an alert as soon as detected.

Tanks and silos

Grain in grain bins may form crusts or bridges inside silos which, besides being dangerous for farmers, lead to inaccurate level sensing (in single point level sensing) and risks of discontinuity of feed for farmer's stock.

IWRL1432?which has 2 TX antennas and 3 RX antennas has to 6 channels which can be used for level sensing of grain bins in multiple points allowing a much more accurate estimation of the grain level in grain bins.

Level and Flow sensing

• River level monitoring in real-time allows early flood warning for the cities located on river banks.
• Sewage level monitoring helps early diagnostics of blocks and helps prevents over flooding of sewage water in clean water streams.

Besides the level monitoring, the IWRL1432 enables - thanks to its 2 TX and 3 RX antennas - monitoring at the same time level and surface wave velocity which is used in turns to compute flow velocity (provided the knowledge of the cross section of the discharge is known). One TX, RX pair being allocated to level why another being used for surface velocity since surface velocity measurement requires a titled measurement to measure the Doppler shift.

For more details on surface water flow measurement, refer to the?EPA tech note?from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

60 vs 77-GHz for level sensing

Illustration of absorption (in db/km) as a function of the center frequency of the chirp for the 10-GHz to 100-GHz range. The raw data comes from the millimeter wave propagation model MPM as described in H.J. Liebe, G.A. Hufford, M.G. Cotton, " Propagation modeling of moist air and suspended water/ice particles at frequencies below 1000 GHz" Proc. NATO/AGARD Wave Propagation Panel, 52nd meeting, No. 3/1-10, Mallorca, Spain, 17 - 20 May, 1993.

While 60-GHz and 77-GHz bands are both defined in the ETSI EN 302 729 v2.1 for LPR and TLPR, the major difference between those two bands is the lower absorption at 77-GHz due to the O2 ray as can be seen in the above diagram

In many applications the selection of a 77-GHz band allows an improved link budget.

However should a 60-GHz frequency be preferred, the IWRL6432 is available with similar performances as the IWRL1432 while operating in the 60-GHz ISM band.

It should be noted that for most application the choice of 60 vs 77-GHz is more a function of marketing rather than technical reasons as at 10m the O2 ray absorption only contributes to 0.1dB of loss difference between 60 and 70-GHz.

millimeter precision with IWRL1432

For a deep dive in millimeter precision level sensing, the DPU in the latest?MMWAVE-L-SDK?called Zoomproc offers high precision for level sensing.

The block diagram of the signal processing is reproduced below and to read online the details you can read the release notes of?Zoomproc

How to get started evaluating radar for IoT level sensing

1. level sensing training video

2. evm documentation

3. IC documentation

4. a network of third parties?to help through system level developments

Ressources

(1): LPR/ TPLR standards EN 302 729, EN 302 372, FCC 15.256

• IWRL1432 product landing page: https://www.ti.com/product/IWRL1432
• IWRL1432 EVM (IWRL1432BOOST) landing page: https://www.ti.com/tool/IWRL1432BOOST
• IWRL6432 product landing page: https://www.ti.com/product/IWRL6432
• IWR1443 product landing page: https://www.ti.com/product/IWR1443

For an archive of all recent?mmWave radar innovations?news letter, check out: mmWave radar news on substack