A High-Sensitivity Low-Power Vital Sign Radar Sensor Based on Super-Regenerative Oscillator Architecture

A new kind of noncontact vital sign radar sensor based on super-regenerative oscillator (SRO) architecture is presented in this work. The proposed SRO vital sign radar sensor is designed to operate at the center frequency of 2.32 GHz, where two different quench signals, 100 Hz and 20 kHz, are employed to control the SRO radar sensor for target detection. By using the proposed SRO architecture, experimental results demonstrate that the displacement frequency of an actuator as well as human vital sign signals, including heartbeat and respiration rates, can be easily identified and extracted. Furthermore, compared with the self-injection-locked (SIL) detection scheme, the proposed SRO radar sensor exhibit superior characteristics, such as lower power consumption, higher sensitivity, and reduced circuit complexity.