Digital range gated radio frequency sensor

A circuit for generating signals to produce radio frequency pulses for range gated physiology sensing, the circuit comprising:

• a microcontroller configured to generate timing pulses;
• a pulse generator configured to generate signal pulses in response to receiving the timing pulses;
• an oscillator configured to generate a radio frequency oscillating signal;
• a switched circuit coupled to the pulse generator and the oscillator, the switched circuit configured to generate a pulsed radio frequency oscillating signal in accordance with the signal pulses and radio frequency oscillating signal;
• and
• an antenna feed coupled with an output of the switched circuit to accept the pulsed radio frequency oscillating signal and emit radio frequency pulses in accordance with the pulsed radio frequency oscillating signal via an antenna, the antenna feed configured to receive reflected ones of the emitted radio frequency pulses;
• and
• wherein the microcontroller is configured to control at least two of:
• demodulating a combined signal of emitted and received signals to determine a baseband signal, and modulating the baseband signal to produce an intermediate frequency (IF) signal,
• digital demodulation of an intermediate frequency (IF) signal after a stage of IF signal amplification to produce a baseband signal,
• digital amplification of one or more baseband signals derived from the received reflected ones of the emitted radio frequency pulses, and
• digital filtering of one or more signals or baseband signals derived from the received reflected ones of the emitted radio frequency pulses.