Microwave Radar and Wireless Power Transfer Systems for Biomedical and Industrial Applications

Over the last years, modern technologies such as radiofrequency identification (RFID), wireless sensor networks (WSN), and wireless power transfer (WPT) are increasingly gaining attraction, both for the biomedical and the industrial fields of study, intending to achieve the paradigm of the internet of things (IoT). Within this research, different systems have been designed and realized by exploiting these typical IoT applications. For what concerns the biomedical sphere of interest, it is proving to be more and more urgent to continuously monitor the behaviors and the vital parameters of elderly people to detect as soon as possible any sort of disease or problem. Therefore, a customized 2.45 GHz RFID localization system has been realized in order to simultaneously perform 3-D tracking of multiple tagged people, static or dynamic, in indoor environments, i.e., the retirement homes. Moreover, a 5.8 GHz wearable device for human breath detection has been conceived, making use of the self-injection locked (SIL) radar technique. Finally, focusing on predictive maintenance, which is increasingly playing a crucial role for industrial, and in particular automotive, applications, it has been presented the design and the validation of a WPT system seamlessly integrated with a WSN platform for remote monitoring of important parts of the engine, placed in a typical electromagnetically harsh, metal-rich environment, e.g., the engine compartment of a car. Energy is provided wirelessly by means of an RF power source at 2.45 GHz to the low-power wireless sensor nodes located in difficult-to-be-reached positions, allowing to eliminate their periodic battery replacement.