Analogue Front-end ICs for Low-cost Healthcare are Ready for Volume Production

Editorial

Austin J Biomed Eng. 2014;1(3): 1014.

Analogue Front-end ICs for Low-cost Healthcare are Ready for Volume Production

Lei Wang* and Jinyong Zhang

Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

*Corresponding author: :Lei Wang, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen University Town, Shenzhen, 518055, China.

Received: May 15, 2014; Accepted: July 04, 2014; Published: July 08, 2014

It is reported from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China that a set of analogue front-end (AFE) IC chips is on the final phase of the preparation for the volume production. The research and development team with Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, CAS (CAS-SIAT), has worked on the medical-application specified IC design arena since 2008. Their efforts were not wasted - after several prototyping Multiple-Project-Wafers (MPW) some AFE IC chips will come to the market as earlier as middle of year 2014.

The AFE IC chips were designated for the acquisition of multiple-channel physiological signals such as electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyogram and photoplethysmographic signals, both as differential and single-ended inputs. Figure 1.a illustrated the microphotograph of one IC chip among them - the MC04, which is comprised of eight low-noise pre-amplifiers (Pre-Amps), eight bands pass filters (BPFs) and programmable gain amplifiers (PGAs), and a multiple-voltage power management unit (PMU), along with an on-chip RC oscillator, varies voltage references and band gaps, and an SPI-compatible digital interface. The monolithic chip was fabricated using the mainstream SMIC 0.18 um CMOS 1P6M technology and the chipset comes in a 9mm by 9mm, 64-pin, Low-profile Quad Flat Package (LQFP), as illustrated in Figure 1.b.