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6 EE|Times EUROPE

COVER STORY
Contactless Measurement

of Vital Signs with Radar

Sensors

BY BERND HETTICH, Product Marketing Manager, Infineon Technologies, and SHUAI JIANG, Master’s
Student, Technical University of Munich

The use of radar for monitoring vital signs has been researched for decades. The
technology enables continuous contactless monitoring of heart and respiration rate
while having low power consumption and a small PCB footprint. With innovative
60-GHz radar sensors, its use in consumer electronics is now becoming a reality.

n an aging society, health monitoring plays their children and infants are doing well so The most important vital signs that can
an increasingly important role. It is better that they can react quickly if the worst should be monitored include heartbeat and respi-
to detect health problems at an earlier happen. ration rate. This information can be used to
Istage, thus avoiding hospital stays or at Many diseases can be detected early based detect diseases like cardiovascular disease
2
least shortening them as much as possible. on irregularities in cardiopulmonary data. or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
People want to live a self-determined and New possibilities are emerging thanks to (COPD) at an early stage. Similarly, diseases
3
independent life in their familiar surround- advances in technology. Since smartwatches like sleep apnea can be detected through
ings into old age. were first launched, the combination of sleep monitoring.
In addition, young people are interested consumer electronics with digital health mon- Most technologies used today for tracking
in more personalized and self-determined itoring has become increasingly popular. This and monitoring require direct contact with the
medical services. With the ability to monitor positive trend is also evident in the healthcare patient via such means as electrodes or skin
health and fitness status at any time, it is industry: Figure 1 shows that investments contact with the sensor. This applies both to
possible to detect and take action against in digital health have increased twentyfold high-precision systems used in hospitals and
illnesses and stress at an early stage. Also, in the past 10 years, with an extremely sharp to wearables from the consumer sector. These
parents are doing everything to ensure that increase in the recent past. 1 solutions either require cables, which restrict
freedom of movement, or regular charging,
which is inconvenient. Moreover, these meth-
ods are not suitable for people with allergies or
skin injuries. Similarly, these contact-
dependent measurements are often difficult for
infants and seniors. Hence, the digital health-
care market needs a product that enables
contactless and continuous user monitoring.

ADVANTAGES OF RADAR TECHNOLOGY
A radar sensor enables continuous and
contactless monitoring of both heartbeat and
respiration rate. It also allows the recording
of long-term vital data without the user being
consciously aware of this all the time. This
will not only help doctors make accurate diag-
noses but reduce the hygiene risks to patients.
Therefore, radar’s vital-sensing capabilities
promise to solve many of the challenges of
today’s healthcare industry.
But how does vital sensing work with radar
Figure 1: Investments in the digital health industry have increased sharply in recent technology? The radar transceiver transmits
years. a low-energy RF signal via its Tx antenna

MARCH 2023 | www.eetimes.eu