Brief Architectural Survey of Biopotential Recording Front-Ends since the 1970s

TL;DR

This paper surveys the evolution of biopotential recording front-ends from the 1970s, highlighting key circuit techniques, architectural developments, and challenges for wearable and implantable medical devices over five decades.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical overview and analysis of biopotential front-end architectures, emphasizing technological progress and design considerations since the 1970s.

Findings

Evolution of front-end architectures over five decades

Key circuit techniques for low noise and low power

Challenges in selecting appropriate architectures for different signals

Abstract

Measuring the bioelectric signals is one of the key functions in wearable healthcare devices and implantable medical devices. The use of wearable healthcare devices has made continuous and immediate monitoring of personal health status possible. Implantable medical devices have played an important role throughout the fields of neuroscience, brain-machine (or brain-computer) interface, and rehabilitation technology. Over the last five decades, the bioelectric signals have been observed through a variety of biopotential recording front-ends, along with advances in semiconductor technology scaling and circuit techniques. Also, for reliable and continuous signal acquisition, the front-end architectures have evolved while maintaining low power and low noise performance. In this article, the architecture history of the biopotential recording front-ends developed since the 1970s is surveyed, and overall key circuit techniques are discussed. Depending on the bioelectric signals being measured, appropriate front-end architecture needs to be chosen, and the characteristics and challenges of each architecture are also covered in this article.