Design, Realization, and Test of a UWB Radar Sensor for Breath Activity Monitoring

An analytical model of an ultrawideband range gating radar is developed. The model is used for the system design of a radar for breath activity monitoring having sub-millimeter movement resolution and fulfilling the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission in terms of effective isotropic radiated power. The system study has allowed to define the requirements of the various radar subsystems that have been designed and realized by means of a low cost hybrid technology. The radar has been assembled and some performance factors, such as range and movement resolution, and the receiver conversion factor have been experimentally evaluated and compared with the model predictions. Finally, the radar has been tested for remote breath activity monitoring, showing recorded respiratory signals in very good agreement with those obtained by means of a conventional technique employing a piezoelectric belt.