A 118-mW Pulse-Based Radar SoC in 55-nm CMOS for Non-Contact Human Vital Signs Detection

We report a direct-RF pulse-based radar System on Chip (SoC) with applications in vital signs monitoring and occupancy detection. The transmitter complies with FCC, ETSI, and KCC regulatory masks with -10 dB bandwidths of 1.4 and 1.5 GHz centered at 7.29 and 8.748 GHz. The receiver samples the reflected signal at 23.328 GS/s, covering a 9.9-m consecutive range. The measured front-end noise figure is 6.3 dB with 14.7-dB gain at 7.29 GHz. Chest movements from breathing and heartbeats in a human subject were detected at 9 and 5 m, respectively. All required power management and clock functions are integrated on-chip. The SoC was implemented in 55-nm CMOS. In active mode, the system consumes 118 mW from a 1.8-V power supply.