Bio-isolated dc operational amplifier

A bio-isolated dc operational amplifier is described for use in making bioelectrical measurements of a patient while providing isolation of the patient from electrical shocks. The circuit contains a first operational amplifier coupled to the patient with its output coupled in a forward loop through a first optic coupler to a second operational amplifier. The output of the second operational amplifier is coupled to suitable monitoring circuitry via a feedback circuit including a second optic coupler to the input of the first operational amplifier

Comparison of Howland and General Impedance Converter (GIC) circuit based current sources for bio-impedance measurements

The current source is a key component in bio-impedance measurement systems. The accuracy of the current source can be measured in terms of its output impedance together with other parameters, with certain applications demanding extremely high output impedance. This paper presents an investigation and comparison of different current source designs based on the Enhanced Howland circuit combined with a General Impedance Converter (GIC) circuit using both ideal and non-ideal operational amplifiers. Under differing load conditions two different settings of the GIC are evaluated and the results are compared to show its performance settings. Whilst the study has shown that over a wide bandwidth (i.e. 100Hz-100MHz) the output impedance is limited, operation over a more limited range offers output impedance in the Giga-ohm range, which can be considered as being infinite

Proposal and design methodology of switching mode low dropout regulator for Bio-medical applications

The switching operation based low dropout (LDO) regulator utilizing on-off control is pre-sented. It consists of simple circuit elements which are comparator, some logic gates, switched capacitor and feedback circuit. In this study, we target the application to the power supply circuit for the analog front end (AFE) of bio-medical system (such as daily-used bio-monitoring devices) whose required maximum load current is 50 A. In this paper, the design procedure of the proposed LDO has been clarified and actual circuit design using the procedure has been done. The proposed LDO has been evaluated by SPICE simulation using 1P 2M 0.6 m CMOS process device parameters. From simulation results, we could confirm that the low quiescent current of 1 A with the output ripple of 5 mVpp. The circuit area is 0.0173 mm2 in spite of using 0.6 m design rules. The proposed circuit is suitable for adopting to the light load and low frequency applications

Catalytic dechlorination of diclofenac by biogenic palladium in a microbial electrolysis cell

Diclofenac is one of the most commonly detected pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents and the receiving water bodies. In this study, biogenic Pd nanoparticles (bio-Pd) were successfully applied in a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) for the catalytic reduction of diclofenac. Hydrogen gas was produced in the cathodic compartment, and consumed as a hydrogen donor by the bio-Pd on the graphite electrodes. In this way, complete dechlorination of 1 mg diclofenac l-1 was achieved during batch recirculation experiments, whereas no significant removal was observed in the absence of the biocatalyst. The complete dechlorination of diclofenac was demonstrated by the concomitant production of 2-anilinophenylacetate (APA). Through the addition of -0.8 V to the circuit, continuous and complete removal of diclofenac was achieved in synthetic medium at a minimal HRT of 2 h. Continuous treatment of hospital WWTP effluent containing 1.28 mu g diclofenac l-1 resulted in a lower removal efficiency of 57%, which can probably be attributed to the affinity of other environmental constituents for the bio-Pd catalyst. Nevertheless, reductive catalysis coupled to sustainable hydrogen production in a MEC offers potential to lower the release of micropollutants from point-sources such as hospital WWTPs

Graphene and Nano-Scale Fiber Bio-Sensing Platform for Early Cancer Detection

On this poster, we present results from our ongoing research toward creating a proto-type of a bio-sensor that can detect cancer antigens in human saliva. A simple comb printed circuit board was designed and manufactured(Fig 1). The bare comb circuit is normally open and requires a conductive substance to fill in between the teeth of the comb to complete the circuit. We used graphene as the conductive material. The graphene acted as a soft electrical conductor completing the current path across the comb printed circuit board and created an electrical circuit with a unique current, voltage and resistance. We applied various concentrations of graphene to the comb circuit surface and explored graphene’s properties as a soft conductor. Next, a solution containing Poly-Vinyl Alcohol and Sericin Bombyx mori silk solution was electro-spun onto the circuit board creating a sticky cob-web-like covering over the comb circuit. This fabric acted as a resistor on the comb circuit and creates a sticky surface to which target cancer antibodies can be attached. Once the target cancer antibodies are attached to the circuit surface, a bio-sensing platform will be created to detect cancer antigens in fluid. When exposed to a fluid sample such as saliva that contains the complimentary cancer antigen to the antibody, the antibodies and antigens will spontaneously bind. This bound antibody/antigen structure will change the impedance of the electrical circuit. This change in impedance can then be detected, quantified and correlated to antigen concentrations in the saliva sample. Further research can then be done to correlate the impedance readings to dangerous cancer antigen concentrations in the human body

The biocompatibility of titanium in a buffer solution: compared effects of a thin film of TiO2 deposited by MOCVD and of collagen deposited from a gel

This study aims at evaluating the biocompatibility of titanium surfaces modified according two different ways: (i) deposition of a bio-inert, thin film of rutile TiO2 by chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD), and (ii) biochemical treatment with collagen gel, in order to obtain a bio-interactive coating. Behind the comparison is the idea that either the bio-inert or the bio-active coating has specific advantages when applied to implant treatment, such as the low price of the collagen treatment for instance. The stability in buffer solution was evaluated by open circuit potential (OCP) for medium time and cyclic voltametry. The OCP stabilized after 5104 min for all the specimens except the collagen treated sample which presented a stable OCP from the first minutes. MOCVD treated samples stabilized to more electropositive values. Numeric results were statistically analysed to obtain the regression equations for long time predictable evolution. The corrosion parameters determined from cyclic curves revealed that the MOCVD treatment is an efficient way to improve corrosion resistance. Human dermal fibroblasts were selected for cell culture tests, taking into account that these cells are present in all bio-interfaces, being the main cellular type of connective tissue. The cells grew on either type of surface without phenotype modification. From the reduction of yellow, water-soluble 3-(4,5-dimethyldiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT cytotoxicity test), MOCVD treated samples offer better viability than mechanically polished Ti and collagen treated samples as well. Cell spreading, as evaluated from microscope images processed by the program Sigma Scan, showed also enhancement upon surface modification. Depending on the experimental conditions, MOCVD deposited TiO2 exhibits different nanostructures that may influence biological behaviour. The results demonstrate the capacity of integration in simulated physiologic liquids for an implant pretreated by either method

Design of a CMOS closed-loop system with applications to bio-impedance measurements

This paper proposes a method for impedance measurements based on a closed-loop implementation of CMOS circuits. The proposed system has been conceived for alternate current excited systems, performing simultaneously driving and measuring functions, thanks to feedback. The system delivers magnitude and phase signals independently, which can be optimized separately, and can be applied to any kind of load (resistive and capacitive). Design specifications for CMOS circuit blocks and trade-offs for system accuracy and loop stability have been derived. Electrical simulation results obtained for several loads agree with the theory, enabling the proposed method to any impedance measurement problem, in special, to bio-setups including electrodes.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2007-6807

Development of power recovery circuit for bio-implantable stimulator

This paper presents a modified design of low power recovery circuit in micro-system implanted device to stimulate the human nerve and muscle. The amplitude shift keying ASK was used to modulate data by using operating frequency 6.78MHz ISM industrial scientific medical band to be less invasive to tissue. The proposed system consists of an external part which has ASK modulator and class-E power amplifier with 94.5% efficiency. The internal part has half wave rectifier and voltage regulator to generate very stable 1.8VDC using 0.35um CMOS technology. The Orcad pspice 16.6 and MULTISIM 11 software were used to simulate the design of power recovery and class-E power amplifier respectively. The regulated voltage utilised to power the sub-electronic device implanted inside human body with very stable voltage even change implanted load resistance. The proposed system has 12.5%modulation index and low power consumption