More muscle for ECG chip
31 March 2011
There are a number of well-known drivers in the medical industry – namely the ageing population, unhealthy lifestyles and pressures on budgets – that result in medical electronics having to be portable and more sophisticated as care, and increasingly diagnostics, moves from hospitals into the home. Tim Fryer was shown a chip designed to enable such trends
An ECG (electrocardiogram) system measures and records the electrical activity of a human heart in exceptional detail, enabling accurate analysis of numerous heart conditions, including birth defects, arrhythmias, problems with heart valves and lack of blood flow to the heart muscle. Analog Devices (ADI) has introduced the first product in a series of fully integrated AFE (analogue front-end) chips that enable ECG systems to achieve monitor and diagnostic-quality performance. The device also incorporates pacemaker pulse detection and respiration measurements, which are critical features of any highperformance ECG system.
The ADAS1000 ECG AFE simplifies the design of a five-electrode ECG system by significantly reducing the signal chain bill of materials from up to 50 components down to a single chip plus a few discrete components. The device can be configured to optimise noise performance, power, or data rate - making it suitable for home, ambulatory, and clinical ECG systems. Future products in the series will provide optimised features and functionality to support traditional and emerging ECG system applications. The ADAS1000 is effective for a wide variety of ECG systems, including diagnostic electrocardiographs, bedside patient monitoring systems, Holter monitors, and cardiac defibrillators. The five electrode chip serves the majority of the market, but a second chip can run off the same voltage reference to double the number of leads if needed. If not all five channels are required for ECG, they can be used to monitor other vital signs, like temperature and blood pressure.
“Improvements in ECG systems will help physicians more accurately diagnose a wide range of conditions affecting the human heart,” said Susie Inouye, Research Director, Databeans Inc., a semiconductor research firm. “AFEs that provide high component integration and low power consumption will make it possible for medical equipment designers to develop next-generation ECGs that are increasingly smaller and more portable.”
“The ADAS1000 AFE, which delivers a complete ECG system in a single package, offers important ECG features such as pace detection and respiration measurement as well as multi-lead core ECG measurements and support functions, including leads-off detection and right leg drive,” said Patrick O’Doherty, Vice President for the Healthcare Group, Analog Devices. "The high level of integration of the ADAS1000 AFE enables designers to develop next-generation ECG systems that are more compact and easier to carry without compromising the high diagnostic accuracy needed to effectively analyse the condition of a patient’s heart.”
Additional key features of the new chip include a DC-coupled channel implementation that offers simplified input switching, increased versatility, reduced power and post-processing advantages; operates 5 ECG electrode measurements from as little as 19 mW - any unused channels or features can be disabled to minimise power to as low as 11 mW for one lead; low noise performance (10 μV pk-pk over 0.05 Hz to 150 Hz) to support end equipment regulatory standards; different data frame rates (2 kHz, 16 kHz, 128 kHz); and the ability to simplify overall design, eliminate many discrete components, reduce overall system size, power consumption, and development time.
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