Vital Sign Parameter Estimation Using Millimeter Wave OFDM Radar

Contactless measurement of breathing and heartbeat is playing an increasingly important role in everyday medical practice, as it allows vital signs to be recorded quickly and easily. The advent of new digital radars and integrated sensing and communication systems is opening up new possibilities for measuring vital signs. This paper uses a 60 GHz millimeter wave OFDM radar to demonstrate how breathing rate and heartbeat can be recorded over the air. The setup of the demonstrator and the signal processing steps are described in detail, and finally, radar-based measurements of a human’s vital signs are presented, along with a comparison of the radar measurements with an optical sensor for recording blood pressure.