A novel non-contact vital signal detection method based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is presented for the impulse ultra wideband (UWB) vital signal module.The clutter is reduced by PCA on the basis of the characteristics of the UWB clutter signal and the objective vital signal.The distance information of the vital object is estimated by the delay time

which is extracted from the appropriate principal component eigenvector peak value.The sequence of the target echo is decomposed into several IMFs by EMD

and the flatness curve of the vital sign is reconstructed in time domain.The respiration and heartbeat signals can be separated with the high signal-to-noise ratio condition.The experiment demonstrated that this signal processing algorithm is simple but feasible.The frequency spectrum characteristics

the waveform in time domain of the vital signal and the distance between the object and the antenna can be obtained simultaneously.The reconstructed vital signal is complied with the characteristics of the time variety and non-stationary for the actual signal comparatively.