A Full Custom Fully Integrated ECG Measurement IC for Healthcare Applications

Early-stage cardiovascular disease shows abnormal patterns in a few electrocardiogram (ECG) periods over a few hours, so it’s essential to monitor the ECG signals over hours or even a whole day. This work presents a full custom, fully integrated, low power electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement analog Front-End (AFE) IC for healthcare applications. We describe this AFE including all the necessary functions that needed in commercial ECG acquisition system, such as right-leg driven(RLD) circuit, lead off alarming function, fast-restore function, and a stable working voltage and current provided by a low dropout regulator (LDO), not just amplifier and filter traditionally. This AFE is implemented in 0.18um CMOS technology, occupies 1.4mm2 for whole chip and only 0.75 mm2 for core circuit, consumes 100uA in 3V power supply voltage and less than 1uA when it is shutoff, the measured input-referred voltage noise is only 10uVpp with the bandwidth of 0.5~120Hz. Therefore, we anticipate that it will be a patient-friendly alternative option for ECG acquisition system in healthcare application.

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