Towards Bio-impedance Based Labs: A Review

In this article, some of the main contributions to BI (Bio-Impedance) parameter-based systems for medical, biological and industrial fields, oriented to develop micro laboratory systems are summarized. These small systems are enabled by the development of new measurement techniques and systems (labs), based on the impedance as biomarker. The electrical properties of the life mater allow the straightforward, low cost and usually non-invasive measurement methods to define its status or value, with the possibility to know its time evolution. This work proposes a review of bio-impedance based methods being employed to develop new LoC (Lab-on-a-Chips) systems, and some open problems identified as main research challenges, such as, the accuracy limits of measurements techniques, the role of the microelectrode-biological impedance modeling in measurements and system portability specifications demanded for many applications.Spanish founded Project: TEC 2013-46242-C3-1-P: Integrated Microsystem for Cell Culture AssaysFEDE

Time Stamp – A Novel Time-to-Digital Demodulation Method for Bioimpedance Implant Applications

Bioimpedance analysis is a noninvasive and inexpensive technology used to investigate the electrical properties of biological tissues. The analysis requires demodulation to extract the real and imaginary parts of the impedance. Conventional systems use complex architectures such as I-Q demodulation. In this paper, a very simple alternative time-to-digital demodulation method or ‘time stamp’ is proposed. It employs only three comparators to identify or stamp in the time domain, the crossing points of the excitation signal, and the measured signal. In a CMOS proof of concept design, the accuracy of impedance magnitude and phase is 97.06% and 98.81% respectively over a bandwidth of 10 kHz to 500 kHz. The effect of fractional-N synthesis is analysed for the counter-based zero crossing phase detector obtaining a finer phase resolution (0.51˚ at 500 kHz) using a counter clock frequency ( fclk = 12.5 MHz). Because of its circuit simplicity and ease of transmitting the time stamps, the method is very suited to implantable devices requiring low area and power consumption

Error correction algorithm for high accuracy bio-impedance measurement in wearable healthcare applications

Implantable and ambulatory measurement of physiological signals such as Bio-impedance using miniature biomedical devices needs careful tradeoff between limited power budget, measurement accuracy and complexity of implementation. This paper addresses this tradeoff through an extensive analysis of different stimulation and demodulation techniques for accurate Bio-impedance measurement. Three cases are considered for rigorous analysis of a generic impedance model, with multiple poles, which is stimulated using a square/sinusoidal current and demodulated using square/sinusoidal clock. For each case, the error in determining pole parameters (resistance and capacitance) is derived and compared. An error correction algorithm is proposed for square wave demodulation which reduces the peak estimation error from 9.3% to 1.3% for a simple tissue model. Simulation results in Matlab using ideal RC values show an average accuracy of for single pole and for two pole RC networks. Measurements using ideal components for a single pole model gives an overall and readings from saline phantom solution (primarily resistive) gives an . A Figure of Merit is derived based on ability to accurately resolve multiple poles in unknown impedance with minimal measurement points per decade, for given frequency range and supply current budget. This analysis is used to arrive at an optimal tradeoff between accuracy and power. Results indicate that the algorithm is generic and can be used for any application that involves resolving poles of an unknown impedance. It can be implemented as a post-processing technique for error correction or even incorporated into wearable signal monitoring ICs