An Active-Cable Connected ECG Monitoring System for Ubiquitous Healthcare

In this paper, novel microchip architecture for a "smart electronic electrode" has been proposed. Furthermore, a new concept for wearable electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring system especially designed for ubiquitous healthcare is described. The patient can wear single Active-Cable connected smart electronic electrodes with wireless transmission of ECG signals to a dedicated Personal Health Assistant (PHA). The system will act as a continuous ECG data and event recorder, which can be used to follow up patients who have survived cardiac arrest or ventricular tachycardia but also for diagnostic purposes for patients with chronic diseases. A microchip prototype for the smart electronic electrode is implemented using UMC 0.18um process. The post-layout simulation results show that the smart electronic electrode with ultra low power consumption is quite feasible for a hand-held PHA which uses a battery as energy source.