Mixed signal SoC based Bio-Sensor Node for long term health monitoring

Major requirements of wearable biosensor nodes include small size, light weight and low power consumption. It can be fulfilled by exploring various high integration technologies such as Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or System on Chip (SoC) implementation. This paper presents SoC prototype of a Biosensor Node. Electrocardiogram (ECG), a vital body parameter, has been considered for prototype implementation. It is based on PSoC (Programmable System on Chip), a reconfigurable platform for SoC implementation. The main feature of PSoC is the programmable analog and digital blocks, which allow the implementation of a mixed signal circuit in single chip. Biosensor node comprises of data acquisition module implemented in PSoC 5 LP interfaced with Bluetooth module. It continuously acquires ECG data and wirelessly transmits the data to central node, which essentially is a smart phone. An android application has been used to plot received ECG signal data for monitoring over the long duration.