ECG circuit

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ECG in old days

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History of ECG

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History of ECG

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Block Diagram of a Basic ECG System

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 ECG Recording System

SOME BASIC BLOCKS:

•The first stage is a transducer (AgCl electrode), which
convert ECG into electrical voltage. The voltage is in the
range of 1 mV ~ 5 mV
• The second stage is an instrumentation amplifier, which has
a very high CMRR (90dB) and high gain (1000)
• Opto‐coupler to isolate the input and output of amplifier by
converting the electrical signal to light and then back
• Bandpass filter of 0.04 Hz to 150 Hz filter. Normally
implemented by cascading a low‐pass filter and a high pass
filter.

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 Main Components of the ECG Circuit
Preamplifier Isolation circuitry
‐Initial Amplification ‐Blocks the ECG from power
‐Needs very high I/P line frequencies
impedance
‐High CMRR
‐Typically, it is a 3 opamp Driven right leg circuit
differential amplifier with a Provides a reference point on
gain control switch the body instead of ground

Driver Amplifier
‐Amplification of the ECG
signal for appropriate
recording
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 Preamplifier Design
Design Specifications
ECG voltage is in the range of 1 mV ~ 5 mV
Amplification Range: 20‐2000
ECG Frequency Range (0.05‐100Hz)
High Input Impedance 2.5MΩ
High CMRR (Ex 60dB)
Problem:
DC offset could be very big (±300mV)
compared to AC signal (~1.5mV) of interest.
Solution:
• Make preamp gain small.
• Implement high-pass filtering along with signal conditioning.
(so DC offset is removed) High Pass Filter stage should be placed immediately
after the differential amplifier (otherwise, this DC component will be amplified by
the gain stage and may saturate the following op‐amps)
• Boost AC component via a separate gain stage.
– Allows independent adjustment of any desired gain value and performs
low-pass filtering of high frequency noise.
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 Preamplifier Design

Step 1: Single Opamp Differential Amplifier

For this differential amplifier

For VOUT = (V1 – V2)R4/R3
a CMRR>60dB or CMRR>1000
Gd/Gc>1000
Gd is governed by R4/R3 if we
choose R4=47K and R3=10K,
Gd=4.7 and
Gc depends on the tolerances of the
resistors.
We can replace R4 in this circuit by
a potentiometer to adjust to increase
common mode rejection. We can
adjust Gc  0.0047 to achieve
Gc=0.0047
desired CMRR 9
 Preamplifier Design
Step 2: Consider the 2 opamp stage and design it for high gain

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 Preamplifier Design
Step 3: Cascade the 2 opamp stage with the differential amplifier

Gd=4.7 from slide 4

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 Preamplifier Design
Step 4: Connect Vout to Active High pass filter

R1=R2=3.3 MΩ C=1µF

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 Preamplifier Design
Step 5: Connect Vo1 to Active Low pass filter

R1= 4.7k
R2=150kΩ C=0.01µF

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Protection Devices in ECGs

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 Defibrillator Protection Circuit
• Defibrillator: a high voltage electrical heart stimulator
used to revive heart attack victims
• When the physician uses defibrillator, the high voltages
and currents discharged onto patient can cause damage to
medical equipment(specificly pre-amplifier circuitry),
BUT physician still needs to view ECG of the patient
while defibrillating.
• the normal ECG waveforms are on the order of a few (1
to 5 mV) millivolts, but the high-voltage defibrillator is in
kilovolts and can last 5 to 20 ms, which is a long time for
electronic components to survive such high voltage.
• How do you protect your medical equipment from
excessive voltages and currents?

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 Protection Devices in ECGs: Neon Glow Lamps

• Neon Glow Lamps are pair of electrodes mounted in a glass envelope filled with
low pressured neon gas or a mix of other inert gases.
• Normally impedance across the electrodes is very high (so lamps are not
conductive) but when the potential across the electrodes reaches to the ionization
point of the gas, impedance suddenly drops making the lamps conductive (they
light up) creating a short circuit to ground, transferring excess energy safely to
the ground without damaging the amplifier.
• The firing potential may be 45 to 70V
• R1 to R6 serve to limit the current flow to amplifier (but voltage bypass function
is done by neon lamps) 16
 Protection Devices in ECGs: Zener Diodes

• Zener Diode: is a diode which allows current to flow in the forward

direction in the same manner as an ideal diode, but also permits it to flow in
the reverse direction when the voltage is above a certain value known as the
breakdown voltage.
• The diodes serve a function that is similar to the job performed by neon
lamps, but at lower voltage(generally in the range of 2-20V).
• In this configuration when a larger potential than the breakdown voltage is
applied to the system (i.e. Defibrillator discharge) the zener diode allow the
current to flow in reverse direction and shunts it to the ground thus
preventing any damage to the amplifier.
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Protection Devices in ECGs: Current-Limiting Diodes

• Current Limiting Diodes are electronic devices that limit current to a maximum
specified value for the device.
• They are not really diodes in the normal sense of the word.
• These diodes consists of a JFET-with source and gate terminal tied together
• They act as a resistor as long as the current level remains below the limiting
value. If current tends to rise above the limit (as in the case of a Defibrillator
discharge), it will be clamped and limited preventing any excess current reaching
the amplifier thus protecting it.
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 Several ways to reduce Noise in ECG

• Common Mode Rejection (differential Amplifier)

• Right Leg Drive (feedback loop to decrease noise)
• Shielding of wires
• Isolation amplifier
• Notch filter to reduce 50 Hz noise
• Bandpass filter to reduce noise below and above ECG
bandwidth (0.05-100 Hz)

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 Driven Right Leg System
Motivation
• reduce interference in amplifier
•we can try to eliminate the common mode signal at
the source

Approach
• patient right leg tied to output of an
auxiliary amp
• common mode voltage on body sensed
by averaging resistors, R3’s & fed back
to right leg
• provides negative feedback to reduce
common mode voltage
•The common mode signal sensed by the
voltage followers is amplified(&inverted) and
fed‐back to the body – raising the RL potential.
This negative feedback causes the output
common mode signal to be low

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 Shielding of wires

Fig: Shielded twisted pair minimized noise.

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 Shielding of wires
•power wiring and low-level signal wiring should always be
routed through separated, dedicated metal conduit, and signals
should be conducted via 2-conductor “twisted pair” cable rather
than through a single wire and ground connection:
•The grounded cable shield -- a wire braid or metal foil wrapped
around the two insulated conductors -- isolates both conductors
from electrostatic (capacitive) coupling by blocking any external
electric fields,
•while the parallal proximity of the two conductors effectively
cancels any electromagnetic (mutually inductive) coupling
because any induced noise voltage will be approximately equal in
magnitude and opposite in phase along both conductors, canceling
each other at the receiving end for a net (differential) noise
voltage of almost zero.
•Polarity marks placed near each inductive portion of signal
conductor length shows how the induced voltages are phased in
such a way as to cancel one another.
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Shielding of wires

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 Shielding of wires

Fig: Trunk cable

•Main trunk cable for multi leads ECG cable are all with multiple smaller conductors inside the
cable you can see to works for all the separate leads;
•each single wire are independent and each are shielded with a carbon film layer (a conductive
PVC material).
•All the wires together are shielded with a general shielding layer of metal mesh.
•All wires are surrounding a fiber core so the cable inside are balanced, this is specially helpful
when bending to make sure all the small wires are sharing same good force.
•All in all, each wire is completed shielded and the cable is with a durable design. 24
 Shielding of wires

Fig: TPU jacket outside and general braided

shielding structure

Thermoplastic Polyurethane
(TPU)
TPU’s physical properties in
crush, cut-through, and abrasion
resistance testing far exceed those Fig: multi-conductor inside; each conductor wire with a
of common thermoset rubber seperate PVC jacket and a carbon film shielding structure;
jackets. there is a fiber core in the central part and all the wires
surrounded by it;
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 Shielding of wires

Fig: Lead Wires

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 Shielding of wires

Fig: detailed explanation for various leads ECG cable leadwire

•Leadwire cable are all shielded with carbon film first and metal mesh
secondly; and this shielding mesh are soldered to the trunk cable shielding
mesh to make sure the shielding cover for all this cable "faultless";
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 Isolation Amplifier

• Fig.: Optocoupler circuit, where the left side is powered by

the batteries while the right side is powered by the DAQ
System
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 Isolation Amplifier
• Needed for safety! Isolates the patient from high voltages and
currents to prevent electric shock by introducing a specific
barrier between passage of current from the power line to the
patient.
• Can be done by using light (photo emitter and photo detector)
or a transformer (set of inductors that are used in a step up /
step down configuration)

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