Infineon BGT60TR13C Radar Sensor

Infineon’s XENSIV™ BGT60TR13C MMIC radar sensor provides vertical and horizontal distance measurement capabilities. It has an L-shaped antenna array and features four integrated antennas to measure precise distances. The radar sensor operates at 60GHz, having a simplified antenna design, thanks to its Antennas in Package concept. It has many applications in distance measurement, presence detection, vital sensing and touchless interactions. The sensor primarily integrates with XENSIV™ radar IC to detect movement and presence, which enables touchless interaction sensing at high precision.

High Precision Antennas with Low Power Consumption

The BGT60TR13C MMIC radar sensor operates on 1.8 Volts and comes with a current consumption of 200mA. The radar sensor enables ultra-wide bandwidths Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) operation in a small package.

The power consumption is 5mW or less as the sensor can be optimized to work in various power modes. With proper duty cycling, users can reduce power consumption to even lower levels. The FMCW operation capability allows the radar sensor to perform frequency sweeps and store sampled data in its autonomous FIFO memory. Moreover, the Finite State Machine (FSM) makes it a flexible option to configure frequency modulations and optimize various power modes. 

While working in the 1.8 V power domains, the radar sensor can operate in five domains, i.e.,

• Analog Domain

• Digital Domain

• Radio Frequency Domain

• Voltage Controlled Oscillator

• Phase-Locked Loop (PLL)

Moreover, it offers an optional 3.3V operational domain for loop filters (LF) that regulates the maximum VCO frequency and sensor bandwidth according to the supply voltage.

The antenna array helps measure vertical and horizontal distances, velocity, and angles. Its lower power applications make it suitable for wearable devices, enhancing its applications in healthcare, security systems, and sensor-based infrastructures. 

Sensitive Antenna for Applications in Vital Sign Tracking Devices and Movement Detection Systems

The Infineon XENSIV™ BGT60TR13C features a set of four antennas. A transmitter (Tx) and three high-sensitivity receiver antennas (Rx) can detect sub-millimetre movements. Thanks to high bandwidth operation of more than 5GHz, the antenna array has a high resolution of close to 3cm. 

Due to high sensitivity, the BGT60TR13C becomes suitable for detecting minor movements and pulses. With a ramp-up speed of MHz per microsecond, it provides a high doppler velocity. Its high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) allows the antenna array to detect a target 15 meters away when the antenna is facing the front. 

The sensor mimics Passive Infrared (PIR) principle, making it more precise, detecting micro-level movements such as pulses and other body vitals like heartbeats, breathing rate and chest movement. Thanks to such high accuracy and precision, the antenna array can substitute high-resolution cameras that require complex algorithms and considerably more power for detecting the same movements. 

The detected movements can be read through a microcontroller. For nominal use, the user must initially configure the sensor through the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and then process the signals per the requirements. 

Thanks to the small form factor and low power consumption, BGT60TR13C MMIC brings innovative, intuitive sensing capabilities to many applications, such as SMART TVs, smart speakers, notebooks, lighting systems. 

Likewise, it’s suitable for low-power security operations and movement detection in sensitive areas.