Page 8 - EE Times Europe March 2022

8 EE|Times EUROPE

How Radar Sensors Significantly Improve the Energy Efficiency of the Smart Home

Figure 3: Potential energy savings with radar-powered smart devices

hot inside. Still, in many devices, so the user would not have to touch the for lighting systems but not yet in air condi-
power-saving features like timeout are not screen to activate it and then wait for the data tioners and other devices such as monitors,
even implemented or are disabled by the user. to be updated and the results to be displayed. kitchen appliances, computers, speakers, and
This is often due to the fact that those features, This concept of presence detection can be sound systems.
in connection with high functionality, can deployed in many other smart-home devices Users can also benefit from vacancy
lead to a long boot time and lack of up-to-date and appliances. detection in other applications, such
information, especially after inconvenient Furthermore, the reverse principle of as televisions. For example, Infineon’s
manual reactivation, so they would signifi- vacancy detection can also be applied, which BGT60LTR11AIP radar sensor (Figure 4)
cantly worsen the customer experience. offers an even bigger potential to save energy. has been implemented in Samsung’s
But a new smart approach could be the In this case, devices such as televisions, Frame TV 2021 (Figure 5). The radar sensor
answer to many questions: Why does the loudspeakers, smart lamps, and air condi-
display of a thermostat always have to be on, tioners can be switched off if no movement
and why does the device itself always have is detected in the room for a certain period of
to be connected to the internet to download time. This significantly reduces power con-
weather data? Why is the home security sumption. Because vacancy detection is not
system’s camera always on, recording data, about the immediate activation of a device,
pre-processing it, and transferring it to but the targeted deactivation when no one
the cloud, even though no one is moving has been around for a while, the sensor mod-
in the area being monitored? The best way ule itself can remain deactivated and perform
to accomplish a smarter way of activating a check only every few seconds or minutes.
devices is to implement motion detection As a result, such a sensor module can save a
enabled by a radar sensor to wake them from huge amount of energy for the whole system
their deep-sleep mode. while consuming very little itself.
For instance, the smart thermostat could be Buildings with HVAC systems especially can
switched off by default while only a radar- profit from this principle, as most energy is
detection module is activated. As soon as wasted for heating and cooling even though
the radar detects movement in the room, the no one is present. To make matters worse, in
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thermostat would be activated to update the many cases, these devices run frequently and
standard data from the house and the weather for long periods. A truly smart home, how- Figure 4: Infineon’s XENSIV™ 60-GHz
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data from the internet. The display would ever, would deactivate those systems as soon radar sensor powers the design of truly
turn on when someone enters a defined area, as the area has been vacated for a while. This smart, energy-saving devices. Learn more
such as within a 1-meter radius of the device, feature is gradually becoming commonplace at www.infineon.com/BGT60LTR11AIP.

MARCH 2022 | www.eetimes.eu