Data acquisition system for Doppler radar vital-sign monitor

Automatic gain control (AGC) units increase the dynamic range of a system to compensate for the limited dynamic range of analog to digital converters. This problem is compounded in wireless systems in which large changes in signal strength are effects of a changing environment. These issues are evident in the direct-conversion Doppler radar vital-sign monitor. Utilizing microwave radar signals reflecting off a human subject, a two-channel quadrature receiver can detect periodic movement resulting from cardio-pulmonary activity. The quadrature signal is analyzed using an arctangent demodulation that extracts vital phase information. A data acquisition (DAQ) system is proposed to deal with issues inherent in arctangent demodulation of a quadrature radar signal.