Evaluation platform for wearable fitness and healthcare sensors
UK design house Ensilica has launched an evaluation platform to speed up the development of wearable fitness and healthcare vital-sign monitoring systems using its custom chip.
The EN62020 ultra low power healthcare sensor interface ASIC supports a variety of vital sign measurements including ECG, PPG (Heart rate, Oxygen Saturation SpO2) and temperature. The optical interface to LEDs and photodiodes can also be used for near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and the monitoring of chemical substances in the blood, such as glucose.
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The ASIC incorporates multiple analogue front ends (AFEs) including tTwo differential ECG sensor channels suitable for 3-lead ECG with <2.5µVrms noise levels and CMRR of 70dB@50/100Hz as well as a highly sensitive capacitive sensor channel. There is also a temperature sensor operating form 35-to 45oC with 0.15oC resolution and two photodiode drivers/photodetector readouts with SNR over 70dB and Read-out dynamic range of 105dB
The device can also interface to other optical or current sensors, such as fluorescent glucose probes.
The size and power-optimised design of the EN62020 makes the device suitable for wearable healthcare devices, patches, and sports / fitness devices. The highly sensitive capacitive sensor interface also makes the device suitable for new MEMS sensors.
The chip is intended to work alongside an edge processor, or a communication device and is powered by a single 1.2 – 3.6V supply with a flexible IO voltage 10µA current consumption per AFE.
The evaluation platform comes with a 10cm x 10cm evaluation board fitted with an EN62020, an MCU interface board for PC connection, and a graphical user interface (GUI) software for the control of EN62020.
The evaluation platform is available from the EnSilica website EN62020 request form and via design partners Cedar Technologies in Europe and QLS in North America.
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