Ultra-wideband sensing: The road to new radar applications

Research on ultra-wideband topics started about 50 to 60 years ago driven by needs in radar and communication technology as well as to emulate EMPs of nuclear explosions. Meanwhile, ultra-wideband sensing opens new perspectives for radar applications. Small and cost effective devices, high resolution and sensitivity, as well as low exposition by radio waves will give this radar technology access to new applications in industry, non-destructive testing, medical engineering and health care, surveillance, search and rescue, and many others more. High peak power devices will be limited to special applications and a low number of devices due to their radio interference and mostly only military interest. Therefore, this paper only deals with some aspects of high-resolution short-range sensing giving new perspectives for a wider community.