A Low-power Low-noise Amplifier for EEGIECG

Signal Recording Applications

l 2 3
Jinghao Feng , Na Yan , Hao Min
1,2,3 ASIC & System State Key Laboratory in Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 201203
2 3
Email: {11021202001O. yanna. hmin}@fudan.edu.cn

Abstract 2. Circuit Implementation

This paper presents a low-power low-noise amplifier
for electroencephalogram (EEG)/electrocardiogram
(ECG) signal recording applications. The presented
circuit contains a chopper-stabilized amplifier and a
second-order continuous time Gm-C low pass filter (LPF)
using very small Gm OTA. The circuit totally consumes
6.37J.lW with a single supply voltage of 1.2V. It achieves
an AC gain of 40dB in mid-band, the input-referred
integrated noise of 1.08J.lVrms (0.1Hz-150Hz) and a high
common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 130dB in
bandwidth. This circuit is implemented in SMIC 0.13J.lm
1P8M CMOS process.
1. Introduction
As the development of the IC technology, many
traditional medical monitor devices become portable and
wireless such as EEGIECG instruments. Patients can
make use of these small devices monitor their health
condition at home or hospital without the limitation of
mobility, and upload the data to data process equipment
or the hospital to make the further analysis. So this
Due to the low frequency ranging of EEGIECG
signals, the dominating circuit noises shift from the
thermal noise to IIf and popcorn noise. Many attempts
have been made to tackle the tradeoff between low
power and low noise under low power supply. Among
these solutions, the chopper-stabilized technique is very
suited for low-power, portable, low-noise, very small
offset and high performance applications such as
electronic sensors. As shown in Figure1, the system has
two parts: the chopper-stabilized amplifier and the
2nd-order Gm-C low pass filter. The chopper amplifier is
employed to eliminate low frequency noise and offset,
and the continuous-time Gm-C LPF is employed to
reduce ripple at the output of the amplifier.
Vout

tendency requires portable EEG/ECG instruments to

become smaller and lighter and have longer battery life.
Moreover, the ability to accurately measure EEG/ECG Figure 1. Proposed chopper-stabilized amplifier
signals is also very important
On the other hand, EEG/ECG signal is quite weak 2.1 Chopper-stabilized Amplifier
with the amplitude ranging from 100J.lV for EEG signal Closed-loop chopper-stabilization has been adopted
to 5mV for ECG signal [1]. According to [1], the recently [2]-[5] to suppress gain and sensitivity errors, as
frequency ranging of EEG/ECG signal is from 0.1Hz to well as to prevent saturation due to amplifier offset. AC
150Hz. Besides, the signals suffer from large DC offset feedback can ensure all signals entering the amplifier are
voltage which can be as high as ±300mV due to the well above IIf noise comer [2].
skin-electrode interface and the common-mode As shown in Figure 1, the circuit employs AC
interference from the 50/60Hz mains supply. So with the feedback and the total gain of the circuit can be
limitation of low-power requirement and working with a established by the ratio of Cs and Cf. In this design, to
low power supply, the accurate acquisition and get a 40 dB mid-band gain, the input capacitance (Cs) is
amplification of EEG/ECG signals is the main challenge 10 pF, and the feedback capacitance (Cf) is 100 fF. Due
in this work. to the very low frequency ranging, the circuit needs a
This paper is organized as follows: Section2 discusses very low high-pass cutoff frequency (0.1 Hz) that can be
the proposed system architecture and circuit determined by Cf and the resistor paralleled with it, but
implementation. Section3 presents the simulation result the resistor in the feedback path must be so huge that
and comparison with the state-of-the-art designs. can't be realized by usual poly resistor for the cost of
Section4 states the conclusions of this work. area. So the MOS-Bipolar pseudo-resistor element
designed in [6] is implemented here.
In both the signal and feedback paths the chopper

978-1-61284-193-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

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 switches are included. The chopper switch in signal path
can modulate EEGIECG signals up to the chopper
frequency and the chopper switch in feedback path can
guarantee the negative feedback around the amplifier. To
minimize charge injection, the chopper modulator is VOU!

realized with minimally-sized CMOS transmission gate.

Vss
Figure 3. 2nd-order Gm-C LPF

Vn -+---+---'

1-__----1 C VOU!

Vbias2

Figure 2. Folded cascode amplifier with chopper

modulators Figure 4. OTA in Gm-C LFP

As shown in Figure 2, the two stage folded cascode As shown in Figure 3, the LPF consists of two same
amplifier with two chopper modulators are implemented. OTA shown in Figure 4 and two grounded capacitors and
The first chopper switch is placed at the drains of the forms a second-order Butterworth structure. The
NMOS current source and its function is to demodulate high-pass cutoff frequency of this LPF is
the EEGIECG signal down to the baseband and modulate
the low frequency noise and offset of input transistors
Gm
and current source transistors up to chopper frequency.
�3dB (1)
The other chopper switch is placed at the drains of the
active load transistors and its function is to modulate the
low frequency noise and offset of active load transistors
To achieve very low cutoff frequency with the
up to chopper frequency. Then these noises can be
limitation of area, the capacitors can't be quite big, so
filtered by the latter LPF. To increase the output swing
the only way is to lower OTA's Gm. However, lowering
under low supply voltage, the common-source
Gm will increase the noise of the LPF and reduce the
architecture is employed as the second stage. As the 1If
open loop gain and GBW. This is a design tradeoff. To
noise and offset voltage has been eliminated by
achieve the very low Gm, the OTA with current division
chopper-stabilized technique, the input transistors can
and source degeneration is implemented [7]. So the total
pay attention to achieve high tranconductance and not
Gm is
need enlarge their area.

2.2 2nd-order Gm-C LPF = gm Mi,2

G (2)
The chopper-stabilized amplifier will cause the m 1 + _( N_+_l )_g.:
m.=:.:...:: M.::.i=-,2..::
residual offset voltage due to switches' charge injection
and the modulated noise and offset voltage. To reduce
these ripples at the output of the chopper-stabilized
amplifier and form the required high-pass cutoff
frequency (200Hz), a continuous-time 2nd-order Gm-C
3. Simulation Results
LPF shown in Figure 3 is implemented.

This circuit is designed and simulated with SMIC

O.13llm IP8M CMOS process. Figure 5 shows the layout
of the proposed amplifier. The chip area of the proposed
2
amplifier is 694 x 639/lffi . In Figure 6, the frequency

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 response of the chopper-stabilized amplifier is given.
Figure 6 shows that the bandwidth is 0.085Hz-234.5Hz
and the mid-band gain is 40dB. The input integrated
noise from O.IHz to 150Hz is 1.08/lVrms, and CMRR is
135
130dB in bandwidth. With a I.2V single supply, the total
power consumption is 6.37/lW included bias circuits. a; 130
�
C>:
Table 1 summarizes the comparison of the parameters of C>:

this work with those of reported works. � 125

Figure 7 illustrates the input-referred noise of the
amplifier with chopping on and off. When the chopper 120
switches are on, the low frequency noise is reduced
much. When the chopper switches are on, from O. IHz to
11 � ·' '
150Hz, the integrated noise is 1.08/lVrms, compared to a 10" 10' 10' 10 la'
Frequncy (Hz)
33.8/lVrms when the chopper switches are off. From
Figure 7. Amplifier CMRR Magnitude Plot
Figure 7 we can see that there is still some lIf noise
which is the LPF's lIf noise that is not eliminated.

- chopperoft
---'chopperon

/
//
....
-------_

10·8 '--:_
:--- �__;___�.......,;___�--'-:-�--'-:--
--------'
10" 10" la' 10' la' la'
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 7. Amplifier Noise Plot

4. Summary
This paper has designed a low-power low-noise
amplifier for EEGIECG signal measurement. The
Chopper-stabilized topology with AC feedback is
implemented to eliminate the low frequency noise and
d
40 --------- - -------- - offset, and a 2n -order Gm-C Butterworth LPF is
implemented to reduce ripple and achieve very low
high-pass cutoff frequency with the limitation of area
and noise. The amplifier has achieved a low integrated
noise 1.08/lVrms (0. IHz-150Hz) with a low power
consumption 6.37/lW with a 1.2V single supply.

Acknowledgments
This work is supported International Technical
�o" 10" la' la' la' la' Cooperation Project by of China (no. 201ODFBl3040).
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 6. Amplifier Gain Magnitude Plot

Table I. Per£ormance Comparlson WI'th Other PubI"lcafIons

Parameter This work Ref18] 2006 Ref13] 2007 Ref13]2009
Supply Voltage 1.2 V IV 1.8 to 3.3 V IV
Process O.l3llm CMOS 0.351lm CMOS 0.8Ilm CMOS 0.351lm CMOS
Mid-band Gain 40dB 40.2dB tunable 45.6/49/53.5/60 dB
-3dB bandwidth 0.085Hz�234.5Hz 0.003Hz�245Hz (0.05, 0.5, 2.5)Hz � (4.5m�3.6)Hz �
180Hz (31�292)Hz

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 Input referred noise 1.08flV nns, 2.7flV nns, 0.98flV nns, 2.5flV nns,
(0. IHz�150Hz) (0.05Hz�250Hz) (0.05Hz�100Hz) (0.05Hz�460Hz)
CMRR 130dB 61�64dB >80dB >71.2dB
PSRR >60dB 62�63dB -
>84dB
THD 0.083%, 5mVpp 0.053%, 5mVpp <0.1%, 0.6%, full swing
10Hz input signal 16Hz input signal 5mV nn input signal
Current 5.3flA(included 330nA IflA 895nA
bias)

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