Proof-of-concept energy-efficient and real-time hemodynamic feature extraction from bioimpedance signals using a mixed-signal field programmable analog array

Abstract

We present a mixed-signal system for extracting hemodynamic parameters in real-time from noisy electrical bioimpedance (EBI) measurements in an energy-efficient manner. The proof-of-concept system consists of floating-gate-based analog signal processing (ASP) electronics implemented on a field programmable analog array (FPAA) chip interfaced with an on-chip low-power microcontroller. Physiological features important for calculating hemodynamic parameters (e.g., heart rate, blood volume, and blood flow) are extracted using the custom signal processing circuitry, which consumes a total power of 209 nW. Testing of the signal processing circuitry has been performed using ∼580 sec of an impedance plethysmography dataset collected from the knee of a subject using a custom analog EBI front-end. Results show the similarities of variations in heart rate, blood volume, and blood flow calculated using features extracted by the ASP circuitry implemented on an FPAA and a MATLAB digital signal processing algorithm.