Design and Optimization of an Autonomous, Ambulatory Cardiac Event Monitor

Wearable sensors for health monitoring can enable the early detection of various symptoms, and hence rapid reme- dial actions may be undertaken. In particular, the monitoring of cardiac events by using such wearable sensors can provide real- time and more relevant diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias than classical solutions. However, such devices usually use batteries, which require regular recharging to ensure long-term measure- ments. We therefore designed and evaluated a connected sensor for the ambulatory monitoring of cardiac events, which can be used as an autonomous device without the need of a battery. Even when using off-the-shelf, low-cost integrated circuits, by optimizing both the hardware and software embedded in the device, we were able to reduce the energy consumption of the entire system to below 0.4 mW while measuring and storing the ECG on a non-volatile memory. Moreover, in this paper, a power-management circuit able to store energy collected from the radio communication interface is proposed, able to make the connected sensor fully autonomous. Initial results show that this sensor could be suitable for a truly continuous and long-term monitoring of cardiac events.