Science fiction has inspired many engineers, scientists and technologists to create the devices they saw or read on their favorite Sci-Fi content. One show that is probably responsible for many of these inventions is Star Trek. The Tricorder, a device Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy used to diagnose his earthly and extraterrestrial patients on the show is seeing life here on earth as many companies and individuals vie for the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE. The goal of the contest is to encourage healthcare innovation by creating a product such as the Tricorder. Analog Devices, manufacturer of high-performance integrated circuits used in analog and digital signal processing applications, has unveiled a high-precision, low-power meter-on-a-chip for a range of portable health applications.
Although it is not a Tricorder, the technology will make it possible to provide point-of-care diagnostics, home/self-test health devices and wearable vital signs monitors. The ADuCM350 meter-on-a-chip is able to deliver accurate measurements of human physiological data even in an environment with interference.
The chip combines a 16-bit accurate analog front-end (AFE) with a configurable multi-sensor switch matrix, hardware waveform generator and discrete Fourier transform (DFT) engine. It has a processing subsystem and an industry-standard software development environment, giving developers a roadmap for complete support of product development. This technology provides data for levels previously unattainable by enabling baseline detection and detailed information of biological, physiological and electrochemical reactions.
The scalable development platform of this chip supports rapid feature expansion with extensive peripheral set of communication I/O including USB, audio, display, serial and touch support differentiation. Some of the features of the ADuCM350 healthcare meter-on-a-chip include:
- 16-bit accurate 160 kSPS A/D converter
- 0.2% precision voltage reference
- 12-bit no missing code D/A converter
- 16-MHz ARM® Cortex™ M3 processor
- 384-kB flash memory, 16-kB EEPROM and 32-kB SRAM
- Configurable switch matrix (amperometric, photometric, impedance, potentiometric)
- Complex impedance measurement (waveform generation and filtering)
- Robust capacitance-to-digital conversion technology
- Temp range: −40 °C (-40 °F) to +85°C (185 °F)
"The ADuCM350 meter-on-a-chip supports a wide range of portable healthcare applications ranging from wearable health monitoring devices, such as smart watches and sophisticated pedometers, to point-of-care diagnostics that shorten hospital stays and make possible high quality monitoring in the home. The ADuCM350 offers exceptional accuracy and integration on-chip making it ideally suited for designing portable products that monitor health and wellness," said Patrick O’Doherty, vice president, Healthcare Group, Analog Devices.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
