Planar Differential Antenna Design and Integration With Pulse Radar Microchip Sensor

This paper reports the design and integration of a novel planar antenna on FR4 substrate with a system-on-a-chip ultra wideband pulse radar in 90-nm CMOS technology packaged in a 32 pin quad flat no-lead package, allowing the implementation of a short-range pulse radar sensor for biomedical applications. Functional tests have shown that the pulse radar sensor detects three targets with different areas (26 × 26, 13 × 26, and 13 × 13 cm²) for front-back movements up to 2 cm around a distance of 70 cm. Field operational tests show that the radar sensor allows the contactless detection of the respiratory rate of the persons under test, be they adult (both genders) and infant, for sub-centimeter chest movements up to a distance of 45 cm from the radar sensor.