University of Zagreb

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and

Computing

Biomedical Instrumentation
Biopotential amplifiers

prof.dr.sc. Ratko Magjarević

 Biopotential Amplifier

The basic requirements to satisfy :

• no influence to the monitored physiological process

• no distorsion of the measured signal
• separation of signal and interferences/noise
• protection of the patient from any hazard (primarily from
electrical shock)
• the amplifier itself has to be protected against any damages from
electrical power supply (230V/50 Hz) or other medical equipment
(electrosurgical devices, defibrillators)

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 Biopotential Amplifier
1. The gain of the bioelectric amplifier may be low, medium or high
depending on the type of amplifier and the signal to be amplified. For
example the low gain amplifiers are used for the measurement of action
potential, medium gain amplifiers are used for the amplification of ECG
waveform (input signal from 50uV to 1 mV) and the high gain amplifiers are
used for EEG signal amplification (up to 100 uV).

2. The bioelectric amplifiers may be ac coupled or dc coupled.

3. The frequency response of a bioelectric amplifier range from very low

frequency to high frequency range, 0,05 Hz to >=100 Hz.

4. Bioelectric amplifiers have differential input and single ended output.

5. High CMRR and extremely high input impedance.

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 Declaration of characteristics of an
ECG input stage
Key Features
• Clinical-Grade ECG AFE with High-Resolution Data Converter
– 15.5 Bits Effective Resolution with 5µVP-P Noise
• Better Dry Starts Due to Much Improved Real World CMRR and High Input
Impedance
– Fully Differential Input Structure with CMRR > 100dB
• Offers Better Common-Mode to Differential Mode Conversion Due to High Input
Impedance
– High Input Impedance > 500MΩ for Extremely Low Common-to-Differential Mode
Conversion
• Minimum Signal Attenuation at the Input During Dry Start Due to High Electrode
Impedance
• High DC Offset Range of ±650mV (1.8V, typ) Allows to Be Used with Wide Variety
of Electrodes
• High AC Dynamic Range of 65mVP-P Will Help the AFE Not Saturate in the Presence
of Motion/Direct Electrode Hits
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 Biopotentials
• Basic function of an amplifier is to increase the
amplitude of weak electric signals of biological origin

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 Biopotentials

electroencephalogram (EEG),
electrooculography (EOG),
electrocardiography (ECG),
electromyography (EMG), and
neural recordings

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 Input Signal
• Composite signal
– useful signal – e.g. ECG: amplitude span from 50 uV
to 1 mV
– polarisation voltage (electrochemical contact
potential @ electrodes) – DC component, up to 300
mV
– interference – mains (50 Hz or 60 Hz), up to 100 mV
– interference voltages – defibrilator shock (n x 1000 V)
or RF surgery equipment voltages

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 Symplified Biopotential Amplifier
Block Diagram

Protection circuit Lead Selector Preamplifier Isolation Circuit

Processing
Calibration Circuit
(analog or digital)

Electrodes

Driver Amplifier +
Recorder - Printer

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 Heart Dipole

• Electrical activity of the heart is represented by a dipole

• Changes of the dipole magnitude and orientation cause
detectable changes in the electric field
• These changes are measurable at the body surface (A and B) 10
Figure 6.2 Relationships between the two lead vectors a1 and a2 and the
cardiac vector M. The component of M in the direction of a1 is given by the
dot product of these two vectors and denoted on the figure by va1. Lead
vector a2 is perpendicular to the cardiac vector, so no voltage component is
seen in this lead.
 Differential Amplifier

• A differential amplifier
– amplifies the difference between two input
voltages
– suppresses any voltage common to the two inputs

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 Common Mode Rejection Ratio
(CMRR)
• The ratio of the differential gain over the common-mode gain
• Expressed in decibels
• Typically 100 – 120 dB for integrated instrumentation amplifiers
• Function of frequency and source-impedance unbalance.

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 Measurement of CMRR
AD
H
AZ

uizlD
AD 
uulD

Δ
uizlZ
AZ 
uulZ

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Differential and common mode voltages

• The origin of differential voltage is

biopotential
• What is the origin of common mode voltage? 15
 Electrodes
Electrode is an interface
• to connect the measurement devices and
measure bioelectrical potentials, electrode is
used as an interface, however..
The electrode is also a transducer
• exchange charge carriers :
– in electrical circuits, electrons are charge carriers
– in the body, ions are charge carriers
• connects to the surface of the body (skin, mucous
membranes) or on/in the organ inside the body

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 Electrodes
• Most of bioelectric potentials strive to measure
noninvasively, e.g. from the surface of the body, by
placing electrodes on the skin

• Electrical characteristics of different tissues

– specific conductivity (specific resistance)
– specific dielectric constant

• Characteristics of biological tissue are:

– nonlinearity (dependence on frequency and current density),
– inhomogenity (unequal material properties of the body)
– anisotropy (different properties in different dirrections, typically along
the fiber-cells)

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 Electrodes
• Using a model of the interface for better understanding
of the interface electrode -tissue
• Passive electrical characteristics of the skin - electrode
interface strive to express by ideal electric components
with intent parameters
– Resistance
– Capacity

• This model can be used for measurement electrodes in

limited frequency range

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Equivalent circuit of the skin-
electrode
Electrode
Skin

Biological
Virtual electrode issue

Electrode – skin intarface and its simplified electrical

circuit

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20
 Metal-electrolyte potential

Standard electrode potential relative to standard hydrogen electrode at 20°C

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 Polarization voltage
• If these two solutions are separated with semi-permeable
membrane to allow passage of ions, and to avoid the
original combination of solutions, the potential difference between
the solutions can be measured according to the formula
RT [cM 1 ]
E  E0.5 M 1  E0 M 2  E0 M 1  E0 M 2  ln
nF [cM 2 ]
• Each electrode that comes in contact with the electrolyte will
have the potential of the expression above. This potential
is undesirable in the measurement of biological voltage
because when using high gain dc amplifier, it causes saturation
of the amplifier. To avoid saturation, amplifier with less gain in the
input is used and the next stages of amplification are
separated with condenser.

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Equivalent circuit of the skin-
electrode

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Equivalent circuit for measurement
and stimulation of biological tissue

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Const. Voltage vs. Const. Current
Stimulation

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 EM Interference

From: 26
 Instrumentation Amplifier

• a type of differential amplifier that has been outfitted with input

buffer amplifiers
• eliminates the need for input impedance matching
• particularly suitable for use in measurement of bioelectric
potentials
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Amplifier Circuits - DC coupled

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Amplifier Circuits - AC coupled

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Amplifier Circuits - AC coupled

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Figure 6.18 This ECG amplifier has a gain of 25 in the dc-coupled stages. The
high-pass filter feeds a noninverting-amplifier stage that has a gain of 32. The
total gain is 25 X 32 = 800. When mA 776 op amps were used, the circuit was
found to have a CMRR of 86 dB at 100 Hz and a noise level of 40 mV peak to
peak at the output. The frequency response was 0.04 to 150 Hz for ±3 dB and
was flat over 4 to 40 Hz. A single op amp chip, the LM 324, that contains four
individual op amps could also be used in this circuit reducing the total parts
count.
Amplifier Circuits - AC coupled

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 Auto-zero amplifiers
• Automatic nihilation of amplifier offset
voltage

u  u  u
u  A2  uizl  A2  A1  u
uizl  A1  u
u  u  A2 A1  u
u  u 1  A1 A2 
u A u Au
u   1 off  1 off
1  A1 A2 1  A1 A2 A1 A2
uoff
u 
A2

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Right Leg Drive Circuitry

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 Isolation amplifiers
• Design of isolation amps:
– Optical coupling
• Isolation voltage typ. 4 – 7 kV
• fast
• cheap
• Nonlinear – digitazing of signals before the isolation gap
• Noice high
– Electromagnetic coupling
• Isolation voltage up to 10 kV
• Resolution typ. 12 bit, max. 16 bit
• fg low, max 1 kHz
– Capacitive coupling
• Characteristics worse than other types, but cheapest
 Isolation amplifiers
• Galvanic isolation of sensory and the measurement part of
the measurement system (attached to the patient) and the
processing and display part, usually powered by mains
• Floating principle of measurement of biopotentials
• The aim is also to protect the patient from the potentially
dangerous voltages or currents comming from the un-isolated
(mains powered part) of the system
Biopotential Isolation Amplifier

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Principle of floating measurements

Ad
lim H   za Z n  
u2i
u1i
Optically coupled isolation amp

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 Linearisation

 u1 
u2  f 1
  i2  f  u1 
 R1 
i2 '  f '  u3 
u3
 f '  u2 
R3
u3  1  u1  
 f '  f  
R3   R1  

u3  1  u1   u1
 f '  f   
R3   R1   R1
f  u1   f '  u3  u3 R3

u1 R1
u1  u3
Linearisation
EM coupled amps - AD 215
 Capacitavly coupled isolation amps
➢ ISO 124
➢ The input signal is frequency modulated
➢ fosc 500 kHz; Vizo = 2,4 kVef
Capacitively coupled isolation amps

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Digital isolation amp principles
Protection of the input of the amplifier

•Diodes
•Zener diodes
•Gas-discharge tubes
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 Input guarding
• Increases:
– input impedance of the amplifier
– CMRR

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Simple ECG

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 ECG on a chip
8-Channel 24-bit ADC With Integrated ECG Front End
Resolution (Bits) 24
Sample Rate (Max) (kSPS) 32
Number of input channels 8
Interface SPI
Operating Temperature Range (C) -40 to 85
Architecture Delta-Sigma
Input Type Differential
Multi-Channel Configuration Single-Ended
Reference Mode Simultaneous Sampling
Input Range (Max) (V) 5.25
Input Range (Min) (V) 0
Analog Voltage AVDD (Min) (V) 2.7
Analog Voltage AVDD (Max) (V) 5.25
Digital Supply (Min) (V) 1.65
Digital Supply (Max) (V) 3.6
INL (Max) (+/-LSB) 8
SNR (dB) 112
THD (Typ) (dB) -98

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ECG on a chip block diagram

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ECG on a chip block diagram

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ECG recorder

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 Literature
• John G. Webster: Medical Instrumentation,
Chapter 6, Biopotential Amplifiers

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