UWB radars in medicine by Enrico M. Staderini (view document 506 KB)
ABSTRACT
A review is given of present state of the art, and likely to be developed or futuristic, biomedical applications of Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radar. UWB radar is something like a mix of conventional radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) technology and spread spectrum radio (SSR) technology, both directly coming from military applications.

What renders UWB radar very much interesting is the possibility to probe the motion of the internal organs of the human body with a remote non- contact approach which is unique at present time. The very low cost, the high miniaturization capability and the environmental friendliness due to the very low electromagnetic energy emission are other aspects of specific interest of the technique. A review of the biomedical applications known at present is presented based on the published documents and information derived from the web sites of the Institutions carrying on the research (gray literature).

Just a paper only appears to have been published about the applications of UWB radar to actual medical problems, although many papers on the interaction of radio frequency energy with the living tissues, and safety issues, can be found in the literature.

An original and very simple model of UWB radar pulse-echo interaction with the human thorax is presented to show the feasibility of a real heart motion probe.

UWB radar technology, which is quite unknown at present time to the general public, and physicians as well, is about to strongly impact in everyday life and in the medical field as well, making it possible to design a novel kind of noninvasive measurement and monitoring devices.