ECG-Multichannel Frontend for Quick Stimulus Response Based on FPGA with Implemented Real-Time, Online QRS Detection Algorithm

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays, economic globalisation is one of the strongest influences in the field of bioelectronics. Due to this, a solid symbiosis is increasing between research and economics. Especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) expect to become and remain a part of this symbiosis. The sector of medical biosignal processing demands effective, compact, low cost and low energy embedded systems that are capable to adapt to new conditions on the market. In this paper, a system solution for SMBs is described that comes with the above-mentioned factors. For this reason, an easily adaptable multichannel frontend as daughterboard combined with an open source, online, real-time QRS detection algorithm based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was developed. 1 Introduction The strong influence of economics in the research and the rapid globalization progress has led to a symbiosis be-tween industry and research of similar directions. The efforts of SMBs are to become and remain a part of this symbiosis. The field of bioelectronics is one of the most important fields that offers possible market entry due to its enormous potential. Medical biosignal processing is a continuously growing area of bioelectronics that demands highest efficiency. It is crucial for systems in this sector to have the capabil-ity of constantly adapting to new conditions on the mar-ket. The optimal system should be effective, profitable, compact, energy efficient and also adaptable to new con-ditions without the loss of any of the abovementioned at-tributes. The experimental realization is carried out by a highly integrated, embedded system. FPGAs offer a very good platform for embedded systems. They are suitable for creating monitoring systems or can be very helpful for signal pre-processing for real-time da-ta-monitoring by reducing PC workload. The implementa-tion of algorithms on these embedded systems differ from other computer based monitoring systems. The architecture of an FPGA brings the ability of parallel processing and offers especially for complex algorithms a very high per-formance. This technology allows the parallel collection of data from ADCs without time multiplexing. Besides that, a great modular variety is given due to hardware pro-gramming. The following system solution for SMBs was developed considering these criteria.