Detection sensitivity and power consumption vs. operation modes using system-on-chip based Doppler radar occupancy sensor

A low cost, low power Doppler radar occupancy sensor is developed by building a customized passive sensor node into a low power System-on-Chip (SoC) CC2530 RF transceiver. Experiment on the periodic moving mechanic target illustrates that this SoC based Doppler radar sensor is able to accurately detect the motion of the target under CW, modulated CW and packet operation modes. The study on sensitivity and power consumption under these modes indicates the most cost efficiency and power efficiency can be achieved by operating the sensor under packet mode with an optimum output power level.