Wireless biopotential acquisition system for portable healthcare monitoring

Abstract

A complete biopotential acquisition system with an analogue front-end (AFE) chip is proposed for portable healthcare monitoring. A graphical user interface (GUI) is also implemented to display the extracted biopotential signals in real-time on a computer for patients or in a hospital via the internet for doctors. The AFE circuit defines the quality of the acquired biosignals. Thus, an AFE chip with low power consumption and a high common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) was implemented in the TSMC 0.18-μm CMOS process. The measurement results show that the proposed AFE, with a core area of 0.1 mm², has a CMRR of 90 dB, and power consumption of 21.6 μW. Biopotential signals of electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyogram (EMG) were measured to verify the proposed system. The board size of the proposed system is 6 cm×2.5 cm and the weight is 30 g. The total power consumption of the proposed system is 66 mW.

Keywords:

• “Analogue” fronted-end circuit
• Portable healthcare monitoring
• Biopotential signal
• Graphical user interface

Declaration of interest:

The authors appreciate the Nation Chip Implementation Center (CIC), Taiwan, R.O.C., for supporting the chip fabrication service and the sponsor of the Nation Research Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under grant number NSC 99-2220-E-006-0013.