New analog front end extends battery life of portable ECG equipment

TI's 24-bit, 3-channel ECG AFE cuts power consumption by 85 percent compared to alternative integrated solutions

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Nov 28, 2012, 01:16 ET

DALLAS, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) expanded its award-winning ADS1298 analog-front-end (AFE) family today with the industry's most power-efficient 24-bit, 3-channel AFE for biopotential measurement applications, such as portable, battery-powered electrocardiogram (ECG) solutions, Holter monitors and wireless patient monitoring equipment. The ADS1293 is also the first device in the family that can support one to five leads with a single AFE to significantly reduce the size, power consumption and overall cost of scalable medical instrumentation systems. Each channel of the ADS1293 can be independently programmed for a specific sample rate and bandwidth, allowing customers to optimize the configuration for performance and power. For information or to order samples, visit www.ti.com/ads1293-pr.

In addition to the ADS1293, the company unveiled WEBENCH® Medical AFE Designer, the latest addition to TI's growing family of WEBENCH design tools. WEBENCH Medical AFE Designer simplifies and speeds system design with the ADS1293, enabling customers to design and configure the AFE online. They can then download configuration data to the ADS1293 evaluation module (EVM), reducing design time from weeks or months to a matter of minutes.

Key features and benefits of the ADS1293

Lowest power-consumption to extend battery life:
- Consumes only 300 uW per channel, 85-percent less than alternative integrated solutions.
- Includes simultaneous digital ECG and pace signals on each channel; this eliminates the need for a dedicated pace channel, which reduces power consumption.
- Includes comprehensive built-in error detection with an alarm pin, relieving the controller from continuously polling for error conditions.
- Allows independent shutdown on any functional blocks that are not in use.
Highly integrated to simplify design, reduce board space: Optimizes signal path gain stages, which eliminates the need for analog filters and reduces board space requirements, by integrating three 24-bit delta sigma analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), four low-noise instrumentation amplifiers and EMI-hardened inputs, right leg drive amplifier, lead-off detection, and Wilson and Goldberger terminals.
System design flexibility: Programmable settings for DC and AC lead-off detection to increase design flexibility.

Tools and support
The ADS1293EVM can be purchased today for US$99. This evaluation module's development tool provides a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) with an interactive block diagram, which allows designers to try different system configurations with the chip quickly and easily. ECG and pace data can also be captured and saved for post processing. The ADS1293 development tool is also available online in the WEBENCH® Medical AFE Designer.

Customers can also ask questions and get answers from TI experts in the Precision Analog Data Converter Forum in the TI E2E™ Community.

Availability and packaging
The ADS1293 is available today in a 5-mm x 5-mm QFN package for US$5.50 in 1,000-unit quantities.

Find out more about TI's analog front end and medical portfolio at the links below:

Order ADS1293 samples: www.ti.com/ads1293s-pr.
Buy the ADS1293EVM: www.ti.com/ads1293evm-pr.
Download the data sheet: www.ti.com/ads1293ds-pr.
Explore TI's full portfolio of signal chain, power management and embedded processing solutions for ECG applications: www.ti.com/ecg-pr.
Search the entire ADS1298 family of medical AFEs for biopotential measurement: www.ti.com/ads1298family-pr.
Learn more about TI's offering for patient monitoring and other medical applications at www.ti.com/patientmonitor-pr.

About WEBENCH tools from Texas Instruments
The WEBENCH Designer and Architect component libraries include more than 30,000 components from 120 manufacturers. Price and availability is updated hourly by TI's distribution partners for design optimization and production planning. Offered in eight languages, the user can compare complete system designs and make supply chain decisions in minutes. To start a cost-free design, visit TI's WEBENCH design environment at www.ti.com/webench-pr.

About medical components from Texas Instruments
TI is helping shape technology to improve the quality and accessibility of medical equipment to revolutionize healthcare in the 21st century and beyond. With its full range of analog and embedded processing products, from building blocks to complete semiconductor solutions, plus systems insight, global support infrastructure, advanced process technology and medical industry involvement, TI is helping make innovative medical electronics more flexible, affordable and accessible. TI's experience in diverse markets, such as wireless communications, consumer electronics, automotive and aerospace, enables engineers to meet increasing needs for higher speeds, higher precision, lower power and smaller equipment, while maintaining the high standards for quality and reliability that the medical market demands. For more information, please visit http://www.ti.com/medical.

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 90,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be – smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun. Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do – from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities. This is just the beginning of our story. Learn more at www.ti.com.

Trademarks
TI WEBENCH and E2E are trademarks of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks and registered trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated