SENSORS Smart home: Energy-efficient
IoT with radar sensors The number of smart home applications and connected devices is growing rapidly, which is not surprising as they make everyday life more convenient. Statista estimates around 350 million smart homes exist worldwide. The downside is high-energy consumption. By combining radar technology and IoT sensors, the smart home not only becomes safer and more comfortable, but more energy efficient.
Deep sleep instead of standby mode.
However, it is often unnecessary for a device to be in standby mode. For example, when residents are not at home, smart devices could be put into deep sleep mode to reduce energy consumption. The potential savings range from a few watts to more than 100 watts. However, depending on the number of devices and the amount of time they are in deep sleep, the savings can add up quickly. An example calculation shows that with five smart devices per household, you could save an average of 0.5 kWh per day. For 300 million households, that amounts to a saving of 55 TWh per year. However, many devices do not have power-saving features such as sleep mode, or users disable them because they are inconvenient to use. This is because deep sleep mode, combined with high application functionality, often results in long startups and waiting times for the user.
Energy efficient thanks to radar technology and IoT sensors
The combination of radar technology with IoT sensors opens up new possibilities. For example, a radar sensor integrated into a smart home device can be used to detect the presence of people. If there are no such impulses, the smart device will automatically switch to deep sleep mode. Depending on the sensor and design, the actual radar module consumes only a few milliwatts and has a maximum power consumption level of just 0.1 W, which is well below the energy requirements of the ON or standard standby mode of many electronic devices.
The advantages of radar technology over other sensors, like infrared, can be seen in the example of a ventilation system. It works most efficiently when combined
The growing number of sensors in smart homes also increases power consumption.
with temperature and CO2 sensors, and the system is only activated when needed.
Unlike other sensors, the radar detects not only whether people are present, but also how many and where they are. This enables the sensor to adjust the airflow of the air conditioning system optimally.
24 and 60 GHz radars enable a wide range of applications
Infineon Technologies offers a diverse portfolio of radar components for numerous applications. Among other things, the products enable precise motion and presence detection for smart lighting systems, gesture recognition for intuitive human-machine interfaces in smart home devices, contactless acquisition of vital data in health and well-being monitoring systems, and advanced object segmentation and
tracking for optimising industrial processes. The 24 GHz radar family offers high flexibility in system design and covers a wide range of use cases. It can be used to determine motion and direction, as well as the velocity, angle of arrival, and position of single and multiple targets.
For applications requiring wide bandwidth and higher accuracy, Infineon’s portfolio includes low-cost and compact 60 GHz radars with low power consumption. In addition to applications such as short-range localisation in surveillance, lighting, and smart home devices, the 60 GHz radar sensors are also used for vital data acquisition in consumer electronics, health care scenarios, driver assistance systems, and industrial applications. All 60 GHz IoT radar sensors are size-optimised and come with antennas in the package.
APRIL 2024 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS 35
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