Imec, Holst Centre Unveil Time-Based ECG Readout Chip for Wearable Applications

Imec and Holst Centre presented a 0.6V ECG readout chip in 40nm technology based on time-domain circuit techniques. The chip maintains consistent beat detection capabilities, even under movement (~40mVpp), paving the way to a low cost, low power multi-sensor Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) solution for wearable medical applications.
 
There is a clear need for emerging applications in personal healthcare to add more digital signal processing capabilities and memory storage within the system itself. While today’s digital ICs and memory ICs benefit from technology scaling in terms of power and area, this has yet to be achieved for analog readout electronics.
 
“Our breakthrough readout ECG chip paves the way to low-cost, low-power multi-sensor systems for ambulatory medical applications,” said Nick Van Helleputte, team leader biomedical circuits at imec.