Low-Power Analog Integrated Circuits for Wireless ECG Acquisition Systems

• Published in: IEEE transactions on information technology in biomedicine Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 907 - 917
• Main Authors: Tsai, Tsung-Heng, Hong, Jia-Hua, Wang, Liang-Hung, Lee, Shuenn-Yuh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.09.2012
• Subjects: Analog filter; analog front-end ICs; analog-to-digital converter (ADC); ECG signal acquisition; Electrical Equipment and Supplies; Electrocardiography; Electrocardiography - instrumentation; Electrocardiography - methods; Equipment Design; Humans; low noise amplifier (LNA); low-power circuits; Medical services; Mixers; Monitoring; Monitoring, Ambulatory - instrumentation; power amplifier (PA); power splitter; quadrature mixer; quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO); Radio frequency; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; System-on-a-chip; Wireless communication; Wireless Technology - instrumentation
• ISSN: 1089-7771; 1558-0032
• DOI: 10.1109/TITB.2012.2188412

This paper presents low-power analog ICs for wireless ECG acquisition systems. Considering the power-efficient communication in the body sensor network, the required low-power analog ICs are developed for a healthcare system through miniaturization and system integration. To acquire the ECG signal, a low-power analog front-end system, including an ECG signal acquisition board, an on-chip low-pass filter, and an on-chip successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter for portable ECG detection devices is presented. A quadrature CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator and a 2.4 GHz direct-conversion transmitter with a power amplifier and upconversion mixer are also developed to transmit the ECG signal through wireless communication. In the receiver, a 2.4 GHz fully integrated CMOS RF front end with a low-noise amplifier, differential power splitter, and quadrature mixer based on current-reused folded architecture is proposed. The circuits have been implemented to meet the specifications of the IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz standard. The low-power ICs of the wireless ECG acquisition systems have been fabricated using a 0.18 μm Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) CMOS standard process. The measured results on the human body reveal that ECG signals can be acquired effectively by the proposed low-power analog front-end ICs.