IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q1 2022 - 41

communications are highlighted. The compact and efficient
antenna designs for integrated wideband RF transceivers are
discussed. Furthermore, leveraging the artificial
intelligence
(AI)-enhanced signal processing techniques, edge devices with
energy-efficient integrated RF transceivers can ensure precise
localization and realize versatile sensing to empower accurate
health status monitoring, intelligent robots, gesture recognition,
and enhanced communications. We envisioned the future integrated
wideband RF transceiver development trends, where the
promising tera-Hertz (THz)
integrated transceiver
techniques
are discussed. Notably, the wideband integrated RF transceiver
technique is promising to enable efficient, flexible, and seamless
communications and sensing for the future-generation intelligent
Internet of Everything (IoE) applications.
I. Introduction
W
ith the rapid development of integrated circuit
(IC) techniques, more and more edge devices
are going to be realized on-chip, which can operate
in coordination with each other to enable pervasive
sensing and efficient wireless communications with ultracompact
size, high energy efficiency, and low cost. From
the report of World Health Organization (WHO), global aging
is happening, and the cardiovascular diseases induced
deaths, which are commonly faced by elderlies, is approximately
to be 17.9 million per year [1]. Moreover, the lasting
COVID-19 pandemic puts increasing demands on sensors
at the edge with the capabilities for efficient communications
and accurate multimodal health status monitoring.
The integrated wideband radio frequency (RF) transceiver
techniques have been used enormously to enable noncontact
healthcare [2]-[32], [43]-[49], [162], efficient communications
[33]-[42], unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)
radar imaging [53], [64], [66], [70], [76], [77], [79], [80], [84],
[85], precise localization [56], as well as seamless humanmachine
interactions [131], [162]. As electromagnetic (EM)
signals can penetrate through plastic, intelligent edge
sensing devices with integrated RF transceivers can be deployed
massively behind façades to ensure the aesthetics
and convenience for pervasive sensing and monitoring in
various kinds of application scenarios [81], [86]-[89], [151].
Fig. 1 demonstrates the IoE scenario supported by integrated
wideband RF transceivers for ubiquitous sensing
and communication. The edge IoE sensors, wearable sensors,
UAV imaging radar sensors, and health monitoring
sensors are supported by integrated wideband RF transceivers.
Nowadays, CMOS-integrated biomedical sensors
leveraging multi-physical sensing mechanisms are appearing,
which can ensure versatile biomedical signs monitoring
at edge [162], [164]. It is essential to enable efficient
communications for AI devices at edge and wearable senUAV
Wideband
Radar Chip
Imaging/
Sensing
Pervasive
EM
Sensing
Subject
Falling/Motion
Recognition
Localization,
Vital Signs
Sensing,
Cloud
5G/
Beyond 5G
Radar Sensor
Wideband
Integrated
TRXs
Communications
Devices
at Edge
Radar Sensor
Figure 1. Illustration of pervasive sensing and communication
enabled by integrated wideband RF transceivers for efficient
IoE edge devices communications, wearable sensors,
UAV radar imaging, and seamless health status monitoring.
sors, UAV sensing, and imaging based on the wideband radar.
Moreover, human body symptoms monitoring based
on biomedical radar sensors are realized synergistically.
As for the future intelligent Internet of Everything (IoE)
era, many smart terminals and platforms such as smartphones
and edge devices require simultaneous communication
and radar sensing. Therefore, it is vital to realize
efficient communications and radar sensing based on one
integrated RF transceiver. This trend for future integrated
transceiver development has raised the interest from industries,
where integrated wideband RF transceivers are to be
developed to realize multiple functions, including efficient
and flexible communications, multimodal sensing for
various kinds of IoE applications, accurate localization,
near-field communications (NFC), and so on.
Considering that respiration and heartbeat rates are important
biometric markers for various health monitoring
applications such as personalized health status monitoring
and early-stage disease diagnosis. Therefore, it is essential
to accurately detect respiration and heartbeat rates in a
convenient way. Currently, most commercial biomedical
devices for cardiopulmonary activity monitoring need to
place pads on the skin, which is inconvenient because it
will easily cause rashes in prolonged usage. As the transmitted
radar electromagnetic (EM) signal's phase will be
modulated by the chest vibrations of the subject, the information
indicative of cardiopulmonary activities such as
respiration and heartbeat rates, can be inferred accurately
by specific signal processing at the receiver side, which
Corresponding authors: Chao Wang (e-mail: chao_wang_me@hust.edu.cn) and Yuanjin Zheng (e-mail: yjzheng@ntu.edu.sg).
Z. Fang, W. Wang, K. Tang, L. Lou, and Y. Zheng are with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore 639798 (zfang005@e.ntu.edu.sg), C. Heng is with the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore (elehch@nus.edu.sg), J. Wang, B. Liu, C.
Wang are with the School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and also with Wuhan National Laboratory
of Optoelectronics, China.
FIRST QUARTER 2022
IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
41
Processing
Radar Sensor
Radar Sensor
IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q1 2022

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