122 GHz Miniaturized High-Resolution Radar Sensor for IoT and Autonomous System Applications

Research Project, 2018 – 2020

The project proposes to develop a first prototype of a compact, low-power, miniaturized, high-resolution radar sensor for the 122 GHz frequency band aiming at application areas such as Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous systems, (e.g. autonomous farming and mining), vital life sign detection, surface analysis, and gesture recognition. The radar should also be suitable for use as a wearable sensor that can be applied e.g. as a hinder detector for firefighters and mineworkers. The 122 GHz radar sensor will be particularly useful in situations and applications where there is poor visibility, (e.g. high dust levels, bright sunshine, or heavy rain), where optical and IR sensors are unreliable and for applications where high resolution is needed. The radar design will be based on a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar chip. The radar will be ultra-wide band (> 10 GHz) for high radar range resolution performance. A communication channel will be integrated into the radar system architecture to make it applicable for direct wireless communication links to IoT networks, or for device-to-device communication with other radar sensors. A feasibility study for the project has been performed with the support of the VINNOVA Smarter Electronic Systems program (project number 2017-03560) and is the foundation for this proposal.