Vital signs sensor interface IC for wearable healthcare and medical markets

Ensilica has released the ENS62020, an ultra-low-power healthcare sensor interface IC for monitoring vital signs in medical devices and wearable healthcare. 

The chip initially provided for evaluation boards has been developed to satisfy the requirements of a diverse range of home-use and single-use medical sensors from oximeters to smart plasters and wearable healthcare sensors and fitness trackers.

The IC is among the first of its type to combine an NFC energy harvesting circuit, making it ideal for battery-powered and battery-less systems.

A modular IC design has been implemented in the ENS62020, which provides for the customisation of the device and allows a product-optimised ASIC while vastly decreasing the time to market.

EnSilica CEO, Ian Lankshear said: “EnSilica is focused on developing ASICs in close collaboration with our customers. The ENS62020 was born out of requirements coming from a number of customers that were seeking to develop differentiated products in this fast-growing wearable healthcare and medical device market.” 

This healthcare sensor interface IC supports the accurate and reliable measurement of an array of vital signs. These incorporate ECG, temperature and differential capacitance, and optical signals, which are employed to track heart rate, oxygen saturation, glucose levels and near-infrared spectroscopy.

The company says that due to the size and power-optimised design, the device is ideal for disposable medical devices and patches and sports and fitness devices. The highly sensitive capacitive sensor interface also makes the device ideal for novel MEMS sensors.

The IC is created to function together with an edge processor or a communication device and includes two photodiode drivers/photodetector readouts; two differential ECG sensor channels suitable for three-lead ECG with <1.6µVrms noise levels; a highly sensitive capacitive sensor channel; a temperature sensor with <0.15C resolution (between 35-45C); a low-power ADC. The device consumes from only ~10µA per sensor.