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COVER STORY
Completely Autonomous Radar Sensor

for Smart Motion Sensing

By Bernd Kohler, Product Manager & Marketer for IoT Radar Sensors, and Arushi Jain, Staff System Application Engineer
for Radar Sensors, Infineon Technologies AG
Security systems, automatic doors, smart-lighting control, and other features of a smart

building would not be possible without reliable motion sensors. Passive infrared (PIR)
sensors are commonly used despite their significant disadvantages. Infineon has developed a
compelling and cost-effective replacement to make motion sensing smarter: a one-package

radar-sensing solution that enables radar technology for everyone.

idely used PIR sensors detect
the infrared radiation of a Industrial radar device forecast
person, an animal, or an object By use case Industrial radar volume forecast (Million units) 2020-2025
Wat mid-infrared wavelengths.
However, with rising temperatures, their reli- 10 9.0
ability decreases dramatically. It is therefore
recommended not to install them near heat 8
sources or use them in high ambient tempera- 6.5
tures. For more demanding environments,
radar sensors are a better solution, as they are 6
less temperature-dependent. Radar device (Mu) 4.4
Another advantage of radar sensors is 4
their superior sensitivity. PIR sensors can 3.1
mainly detect larger movements along 2.2
the tangential direction with a minimum 2 1.4 1.0 1.2 1.6
speed of about 1 m/s. As a consequence, 0.6 0.7 0.7
PIR sensors are ineffective for stationary 0
and radial movement detection. In contrast, 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
radar sensors detect the slightest movement Presence/motion detection
of the human body, be it typing, speaking, or
even breathing. Furthermore, you can get the Others (aggregating GPR, cobots, drones, navigation, LPR)
direction of motion, velocity, or even exact Status of the radar industry | Market and Technology Report | www.yole.fr | ©2020
position of a target, depending on the radar
chip configuration. Figure 1: Industrial radar device forecast 1

Radar has decisive security, and aerospace, as well as appli- level of expertise over the last decade. As the
advantages over other cations like weather monitoring or traffic market leader in radar chips, Infineon has
motion-sensing control. In the industrial area, radar was developed a product that combines all
advantages in a fully integrated microwave
limited to level/ground probing, maritime
technologies, including navigation, and motion sensors for automatic motion sensor, thus creating the most user-
higher sensitivity, doors. Yet in the past few years, the tech- friendly radar solution so far.
nology has advanced significantly and will
environmental robustness, now create opportunities in factory automa- FIRST COMPLETELY AUTONOMOUS
tion, autonomous navigation, cobots, and
AND EASY-TO-USE MOTION SENSOR
and anonymous commercial drones for industrial inspection. The BGT60LTR11AIP (Figure 2) is Infineon’s
1
detection. According to Yole, the market for industrial most integrated and smallest 60-GHz radar
sensor. With a size of only about one-tenth
radar applications is expected to exceed
10 million devices within the next five years, of a penny, and because it operates through
Beyond that, radar sensing protects privacy, with basic motion/presence detection as the non-conductive materials, the autonomous
because it does not create any optical image predominant use case (Figure 1). motion sensor can be easily integrated
of the sensed environment as time-of-flight However, radar technology still requires inside the end product. Therefore, the sensor
or camera sensors do. Hence, radar sensing a considerably high level of know-how in enables seamless integration of radar tech-
can be completely anonymous. radio-frequency engineering, antenna design, nology in our day-to-day lives.
Given its unique features and benefits, and signal processing — all areas where Infineon’s radar sensor is a fully integrated
radar has been used for decades in defense, Infineon Technologies has achieved a high microwave motion sensor with built-in

FEBRUARY 2021 | www.eetimes.eu