Wideband antenna for Novelda nanoscale impulse radar

OSLO, NORWAY: Novelda AS announced two new antennas for its CMOS Impulse Radar Transceiver Development kits.

The antenna design is based on a Sinuous Antenna geometry. The antenna itself consists of two printed circuit boards spaced by about 15mm. The upper PCB is the antenna itself; the lower PCB is a balancing network. The antenna has a broad radiation beam of about 70 degrees. This can be lowered by attaching a lens. This lens is built from a plastic material and is mounted with 4 screws onto the antenna.

Together with this lens, the antenna will have a -3dB beam-width of about 40 degrees.
The Novelda 6.0-8.5 GHz Sinuous Antenna is specifically designed to work with the NVA6000 radar chip. The highly directional antenna is optimal for radar and ranging applications. A detachable dielectric lens is included in order to further increase the gain and lower the opening angle, at the cost of a slightly bigger antenna.

The Novelda 3.1-5.6 GHz Sinuous Antenna is specifically designed to work with the NVA6100 radar chip. The highly directional antenna is optimal for radar and ranging applications. A detachable dielectric lens is included in order to further increase the gain and lower the opening angle.

Novelda's mission is to develop and manufacture impulse radar technology as a new electromagnetic high-precision sensor for human vital sign monitoring, personal security, environmental monitoring, industrial automation and other novel sensor applications.

The Novelda Impulse Radar is a complete CMOS radar transceiver integrated on a single chip. The high bandwidth of the transmitted pulses offers unique penetration abilities and very high accuracy.

In addition to being an alternative to, or complementary to, existing technologies such as image, ultrasound and infrared sensors, it opens up new application areas due to its speed and resolution, and its ability to "see through" obstacles. No more lenses need to be cleaned, and thus the cost of ownership can be dramatically reduced in comparison to technologies requiring free visibility. Since the NVA6000-series chips are single chip transceivers, they are very suitable for integration into small and mobile devices.