An ECG-on-Chip with QRS Detection & Lossless Compression for Low Power Wireless Sensors

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a low power 3- lead ECG-on-Chip with integrated real-time QRS detection and lossless data compression for wearable wireless ECG sensors. Data compression and QRS detection can reduce the sensor power by up to 2 to 5 times. A joint QRS detection and lossless data compression circuit allows computational resources to be shared among multiple functions, thus lowering the overall system power. The proposed technique achieves an average compression ratio (CR) of 2.15 times on standard test data. The QRS detector achieves a sensitivity (Se) of 99.58% and positive productivity (+P) of 99.57% @ 256Hz when tested with the MIT/BIH database. Implemented in 0.35μm process, the circuit consumes 0.96μW @2.4V with a core area of 1.56mm2 for 2-channel ECG compression and QRS detection. Small size and ultra-low power consumption makes the chip suitable for usage in wearable/ambulatory ECG sensors.