A Full Custom Fully Integrated ECG Measurement IC for Healthcare Applications

Abstract

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.