Ambulatory recording of biopotential signals: constraints and challenges for analog design

The monitoring of biopotential signals such as EEG, ECG, and EMG is a common procedure in modern clinical practice. The instruments that can monitor these signals are traditionally realized by combining precision building blocks with powerful DSPmodules. The growing interest toward the improvement of patients' quality of life and the use of biopotential signals in nonmedical applications such as entertainment, sports, and brain-computer interfaces requires the implementation of miniaturized and wireless biopotential acquisition systems with ultra-low power dissipation. This has dramatically changed the way of developing instruments for the extraction of biopotential signals, placing stringent constraints on the design of analog front-end circuits that can be used in ambulatory biopotential monitoring applications. In addition, the ambulatory monitoring of patients has introduced new challenges that can jeopardize the signal integrity. This chapter will focus on the design of analog-integrated circuits that can be used in ambulatory biopotential monitoring applications. Several constraints in terms of power dissipation and signal-to-noise ratio will be addressed. Later, an important challenge in ambulatory biomedical signal monitoring, namely motion artifacts, will be introduced and different strategies to tackle this problem will be explained. © 2012 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.

ISBN:978-981-4316-71-2

Publication year:2011