Wearable medical devices can be smaller, lighter, and have longer battery life.

Analog Devices (ADI) today announced a low-power, next-generation biopotential analog front end (AFE) with improved battery life that enables smaller, lighter, and more unobtrusive electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring devices.

The AD8233 AFE is a fully integrated, single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) front end designed as a compact, easy-to-use component. Typically, developers would design an ECG front end using multiple discrete components, increasing cost and design time.

However, the highly integrated, ready-to-use AD8233 AFE eliminates these unnecessary costs and time, enabling developers to get their products to market faster. Furthermore, its mere 2.0 mm × 1.7 mm size enables the design of smaller, lighter, and more user-friendly wearable medical devices. Large, heavy, and obtrusive monitoring devices can be uncomfortable for patients to wear or disrupt their daily lives.

Long battery life is also an essential feature for ECG monitoring devices, enabling continuous monitoring and accurate data without interruption of recording due to battery charging or replacement. The AD8233 AFE significantly extends battery life through its low power consumption in the microampere range.
In addition to its compact size, the AD8233, equipped with a single power supply (1.7 V to 3.5 V), boasts an extremely low quiescent current of 50 μA (typical), on/off detection that operates even in shutdown mode (<1 μA), and an 80 dB common-mode rejection ratio (DC to 60 Hz). Electrical noise, a critical specification for ECG monitoring devices, is less than 10 μV from 0.5 to 40 Hz.

The AD8233 inherently offers flexible filter configurations essential for continuous, reliable operation in a variety of applications, particularly those in harsh electrical environments. These filters include an adjustable two-pole high-pass filter, an adjustable three-pole low-pass filter with variable gain, and an RFI filter. Additionally, the AD8233 integrates an integrated right leg drive (RLD) amplifier with a shutdown function and an uncommitted operational amplifier for ease of use and flexibility.

Additionally, Analog Devices provides evaluation boards, reference designs, web-based filter design tools, and Spice models to aid design and accelerate time to market.