A flexible system-on-chip (SoC) for biomedical signal acquisition and processing

In this paper, a system-on-chip (SoC) that combines multiple biomedical signal acquisition (ECG, EEG, EP, and respiration-related signals) with on-chip digital signal processing is presented. The embedded flexibility of the SoC facilitates its use in a multitude of applications. Time-sharing of the operational transconductance amplifier within the analog-to-digital converters is employed in order to lower the power consumption and to save area. Built-in self-test (BIST) and autocalibration capabilities are included to enhance its reliability. The low noise analog front-end (AFE) is fully programmable to achieve the best power-noise trade-off for the application at hand. A prototype has been manufactured in 0.35 μm 3.3 V CMOS technology.