Imec has made  a millimetre-wave motion detection radar at 60GHz fabbed in standard 28nm CMOS.

Achieving 2-cm range resolution, the radar is optimized for vital sign monitoring and gesture recognition.

The chip consumes 62 mW, making the sensor integrable into small, battery-powered devices.

Experiments have demonstrated the sensor’s ability for multi-target detection, heartbeat detection at 5 meter and accurate tracking of a pedestrian’s position and velocity.

Imec’s new radar design generates fast modulated waves, with a frequency increase of 12% in just 51.2 microseconds.

A high modulation bandwidth (7.2 GHz) determines the sensor’s ultra-fine resolution, which makes it suitable for 3D sensing of finger motions, hand swiping and gestures.

Experiments have demonstrated the sensor’s ability for multi-target detection, heartbeat detection at 5 meter and accurate tracking of a pedestrian’s position and velocity.

The radar operates in the frequency band around 60 GHz, a license-free ISM band that can be used for new IoT applications for industrial and medical purposes.

The system consumes 62mW which is significantly lower compared to state-of-the-art radars in this frequency range.

A quick start-up time (1µs) supports aggressive duty-cycling for further power reduction.

The 4.15 mm² transceiver chip is integrated in 28nm bulk CMOS technology, ensuring a low-cost solution at high volume production.

A reference module design is available for the single-channel radar, including the antenna and achieving good spillover performance.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s ECSEL Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n° 783190 – project PRYSTINE.