Biocompatible, high precision, wideband, improved Howland current source with lead-lag compensation

BIMMS: A versatile and portable system for biological tissue and electrode-tissue interface electrical characterization

The presented design is a low-cost, compact, and open-source USB-controlled platform for biological tissue and electrode-tissue interface electrical measurements, capable of potentiostatic and galvanostatic electrical impedance spectroscopy up to 10 MHz and cyclic voltammetry with voltage compliance of +-8 V and up to 2.4 mA while ensuring tissue-safety conditions. The data acquisition and generation are based on an Analog Discovery 2 platform (Digilent, USA). We provide accuracy analysis and comparisons with a commercially available calibrated impedance analyzer. Impedance measurements are demonstrated on implanted electrodes for neural stimulation and on an isolated ex-vivo calf brain as an example use case of the presented design.

Parasitic Effects on Electrical Bioimpedance Systems: Critical Review

Parasitic capacitance represents the main error source in measurement systems based on electrical impedance spectroscopy. The capacitive nature of electrodes' impedance in tetrapolar configuration can give origin to phase errors when electrodes are coupled to parasitic capacitances. Nevertheless, reactive charges in tissue excitation systems are susceptible to instability. Based on such a scenario, mitigating capacitive effects associated with the electrode is a requirement in order to reduce errors in the measurement system. A literature review about the main compensation techniques for parasitic capacitance was carried out. The selected studies were categorized into three groups: (i) compensation in electronic instrumentation; (ii) compensation in measurement processing, and (iii) compensation by negative impedance converters. The three analyzed methods emerged as effective against fixed capacitance. No method seemed capable of mitigating the effects of electrodes' capacitance, that changes in the frequency spectrum. The analysis has revealed the need for a method to compensate varying capacitances, since electrodes' impedance is unknown.

Hardware for cell culture electrical impedance tomography: A critical review

Human cell cultures are powerful laboratory tools for biological models of diseases, drug development, and tissue engineering. However, the success of biological experiments often depends on real-time monitoring of the culture state. Conventional culture evaluation methods consist of end-point laborious techniques, not capable of real-time operation and not suitable for three-dimensional cultures. Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive imaging technique with high potential to be used in cell culture monitoring due to its biocompatibility, non-invasiveness, high temporal resolution, compact hardware, automatic operation, and high throughput. This review approaches the different hardware strategies for cell culture EIT that are presented in the literature, discussing the main components of the measurement system: excitation circuit, voltage/current sensing, switching stage, signal specifications, electrode configurations, measurement protocols, and calibration strategies. The different approaches are qualitatively discussed and compared, and design guidelines are proposed.

Simultaneous Electrical Bio-Impedance Plethysmography at Different Body Parts: Continuous and Non-Invasive Monitoring of Pulse Wave Velocity

A simultaneous and time-synchronized electrical bio-impedance plethysmography (BPG) sensor system is implemented for long-term, continuous, and non-invasive measurement of arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV). The proposed BPG sensor system electrically separates each ground plane of two BPG channels and controller, and the two different BPG channels are time-synchronized by the controller transmitting periodic pulse signal to the two BPG channels. Furthermore, net parasitic capacitance between the ground planes is minimized by removing isolated DC-DC converter, limiting the number of digital capacitive isolators, and adopting optimal layout of the ground planes. The proposed sensor system is integrated on 278cm² printed circuit board. The sensor system consumes 0.35 W/channel, and outstanding channel-to-channel isolation is expected by coupling factor performance of -77.7 dB. In addition, modified electrode configuration for BPG at chest drastically reduces baseline wandering by respiratory motion artifact, thereby further facilitating long-term, continuous, and non-invasive PWV measurement. As a result, long-term, continuous, and non-invasive PWV measurement more than 95 minutes is successfully performed to pave the way for developing pulse transit time (PTT)-based cuff-less blood pressure (BP) estimation technique.

Wearable Electrical Impedance Tomography Belt With Dry Electrodes

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a noninvasive imaging technology used to reconstruct the conductivity distribution in objects and the human body. In recent years, numerous EIT systems and image reconstruction algorithms have been developed. However, most of these EIT systems require conventional electrodes with conductive gels (wet electrodes) and cannot be adapted to different body types, resulting in limited applicability. In this study, a wearable wireless EIT belt with dry electrodes was designed to enable EIT imaging of the human body without using wet electrodes. The specific design of the belt mechanism and dry electrodes provide the advantages of easy wear and adaptation to different body sizes. Additionally, the GaussNewton method was used to optimize the EIT image. Finally, experiments were performed on the phantom and human body to validate the performance of the proposed EIT belt. The results demonstrate that the proposed system can provide accurate location information of the objects in the EIT image and the system can be successfully applied for noninvasive measurement of the human body.

A FPGA-based adaptive differential current source for electrical impedance tomography

A high output impedance current source with a wide bandwidth is needed in electrical impedance tomography systems. Limitations appear mainly at higher frequencies and non-simple loads. In order to adjust the output current, the amplitude and phase are made to achieve the expected value automatically. A current source based on the field programmable gate array is designed. In this paper, we proposed a double DAC differential current source structure. By measuring the voltage of the sampling resistor in series with the load and using the proposed dynamic reference point demodulation algorithm, the actual current amplitude and phase on the load can be quickly obtained. Through the adaptive compensation module, the output current is adjusted to the expected value. The experimental results show that the output resistance of the current source can reach 10 MΩ and the output capacitance can be less than 0.8 pF in the frequency range of 10 kHz-1.28 MHz. At the same time, the current amplitude attenuation is less than 0.016%, and the phase error is less than 0.0025° after compensation. Therefore, the proposed current source achieves widebands, biocompatibility, and high precision.

Analysis, Simulation, and Development of a Low-Cost Fully Active-Electrode Bioimpedance Measurement Module

A low-cost 1 kHz–400 kHz operating frequency fully-active electrode bioimpedance measurement module, based on Howland current source, is presented in this paper. It includes a buffered positive feedback Howland current source, implemented with operational amplifiers, as well as an AD8421 instrumentation amplifier, for the differential voltage measurements. Each active electrode module can be connected to others, assembling a wearable active electrode module array. From this array, 2 electrodes can be selected to be driven from a THS413 fully differential amplifier, activating a mirrored Howland current source. This work performs a complete circuit analysis, verified with MATLAB and SPICE simulations of the current source’s transconductance and output impedance over the frequency range between 1 kHz and 1 MHz. Resistors’ tolerances, possible mismatches, and the operational amplifiers’ non-idealities are considered in both the analysis and simulations. A comparison study between four selected operational amplifiers (ADA4622, OPA2210, AD8034, and AD8672) is additionally performed. The module is also hardware-implemented and tested in the lab for all four operational amplifiers and the transconductance is measured for load resistors of 150 Ω, 660 Ω, and 1200 Ω. Measurements showed that, using the AD8034 operational amplifier, the current source’s transconductance remains constant for frequencies up to 400 KHz for a 150 Ω load and 250 kHz for a 1200 Ω load, while lower performance is achieved with the other 3 operational amplifiers. Finally, transient simulations and measurements are performed at the AD8421 output for bipolar measurements on the 3 aforementioned load resistor values.

A Low-Power Stable Wideband Current Source for Acupuncture Point Skin Impedance Measurements

A low-power stable wideband current source for acupuncture point skin impedance measurements has been designed employing a differential architecture and negative feedback. The circuits extend bandwidth to 1 MHz, reducing harmonic distortion to 0.24% at 1 MHz. The output impedance is 37 MΩ at 100 kHz and 11 MΩ at 1 MHz. The stability of the output current of the current source when connected to different loads is below 0.1% at frequencies up to 500 kHz and increases to 0.74% at 1 MHz. The circuit was manufactured in a 0.13-μm CMOS technology and measured results are presented. The area of the current source is 0.09 mm² and its consumption is 1.2 mW. It is intended for low-power acupuncture point skin impedance measurements.

Measuring Current Source Output Impedance in EIT Systems while Attached to a Load

A novel method for measuring the shunt impedance of current sources in Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) systems is introduced. In an EIT system, electrical currents with theoretical sum of zero, are applied to the body and any mismatch between the currents results in current going through an extra grounded electrode. Since the N - 1 current patterns applied in an N-electrode EIT system are orthogonal to each other, by introducing an additional linearly- independent current pattern, a system of linear equations can be established from which the unknown shunt impedances can be calculated. The framework of the proposed scheme is introduced and its effectiveness is validated through both simulation and practical implementation. The experimental results show that by measuring the shunt impedances with the proposed method and using those values to adjust the current sources, the current passing through the grounded electrode is significantly reduced.

DSP-based current source for electrical impedance tomography

OBJECTIVE

EIT systems, particularly those that use a parallel, multiple source architecture, require current sources with very high output impedance. To meet this requirement, sources often use complex analog circuits and require manual or electronically-controlled adjustments. The goal is to implement a current source with simple, adjustment-free analog electronics with high effective output impedance even with significant stray impedance at its output.

APPROACH

The excitation provided to the voltage-to-current converter is adjusted to accommodate the current lost in the finite output and stray impedances. The adaptive algorithm uses the measured voltage and the previously-measured output and stray impedance to determine the needed current adjustment.

MAIN RESULTS

The structure of the source is presented along with an implementation, and experimental results that show the effectiveness of the approach for frequencies up to 1 MHz. The measured output impedance with and without the adaptive compensation are presented as well as measurements of resistive and complex loads.

SIGNIFICANCE

The new current source has low analog complexity, operates over a wide range of frequencies, and can compensate for a significant stray shunt impedance. It can be used to implement improved parallel or serial EIT systems.

Florida research open-source synchronization tool (FROST) for electrophysiology experiments

BACKGROUND

Accurate interpretation of electrophysiological data in cognitive and behavioral experiments requires the acquisition of time labels, such as marking the exact start of a condition or moment a stimulus is presented to a research subject.

NEW METHOD

Here we present an inexpensive (∼30 USD) device used as a central relay for multiple peripheral devices, such as a computer screen presenting an experiment, a pressure-sensor push button, a multi-button responder, a pulse oximeter sensor, a light-emitting diode trigger for camera synchronization, and more. We refer to this device as the Florida Research Open-source Synchronization Tool (FROST). FROST allows for easy hardware and Arduino-based firmware modifications that enable a standard platform for the integration of novel peripheral sensors.

RESULTS

With two examples, we demonstrate the application of this device during human research experiments: intracranial-electroencephalography (EEG) recordings in a patient with epilepsy and surface-EEG recordings in a healthy participant. We provide an example setup for a rodent experiment as well. We also demonstrate the timing delays of our device.

COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS

There is currently very few existing open-source synchronization tools for electrophysiological research that enable customization with new device compatibility. We developed this tool to enable widespread replication for many applications through an open-source platform.

CONCLUSIONS

FROST can be easily adapted for research experiments beyond the included example cases. All materials are open-source at github.com/Brain-Mapping-Lab/FROST.

Design of Howland Current Sources Using Differential Evolution Optimization

Howland circuits have been widely used in Electrical Bioimpedance Spectroscopy applications as reliable current sources. This paper presents an algorithm based on Differential Evolution for the automated design of Enhanced Howland Sources according to arbitrary design constraints while respecting the Howland ratio condition. Results showed that the algorithm can obtain solutions to commonly sought objectives, such as maximizing the output impedance at a given frequency, making it a versatile method to be employed in the design of sources with specific requirements. The mathematical modeling of the source output impedance and transconductance, considering a non-ideal operational amplifier, was validated against SPICE simulations, with results matching up to 10 MHz.

Smart Bioimpedance Spectroscopy Device for Body Composition Estimation

The purpose of this work is to describe a first approach to a smart bioimpedance spectroscopy device for its application to the estimation of body composition. The proposed device is capable of carrying out bioimpedance measurements in multiple configurable frequencies, processing the data to obtain the modulus and the bioimpedance phase in each of the frequencies, and transmitting the processed information wirelessly. Another novelty of this work is a new algorithm for the identification of Cole model parameters, which is the basis of body composition estimation through bioimpedance spectroscopy analysis. Against other proposals, the main advantages of the proposed method are its robustness against parasitic effects by employing an extended version of Cole model with phase delay and three dispersions, its simplicity and low computational load. The results obtained in a validation study with respiratory patients show the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed technology for bioimpedance measurements. The precision and validity of the algorithm was also proven in a validation study with peritoneal dialysis patients. The proposed method was the most accurate compared with other existing algorithms. Moreover, in those cases affected by parasitic effects the proposed algorithm provided better approximations to the bioimpedance values than a reference device.

Balanced Adjustable Mirrored Current Source with Common Mode Feedback and Output Measurement for Bioimpedance Applications

Bioimpedance methods are used in a variety of applications such as impedance tomography, electrodermal activity detection and vascular disease assessment. Recent developments in portable and unobtrusive biosignal acquisition systems facilitate the integration of wearable bioimpedance applications including sleep monitoring, respiration estimation and fluid monitoring. However, the less stable measurement situation in a wearable scenario increases the requirements for the system's accuracy and adaptability. The current source of a bioimpedance system needs to drive large complex loads subject to vast variations over time while maintaining a high level of accuracy. The widely used improved Howland current source suffers from multiple disadvantages when considered for an adaptive bioimpedance system. We propose an optimized mirrored architecture which allows for a simple output current adjustment and current measurement without an additional shunt resistor in the load path. The system implements a common mode feedback system which includes balancing of the mirrored sources. Our design is validated by calculation, SPICE simulation and complex load measurements. We achieved output impedances in excess of 3 MΩ and derived a simplified transconductance function valid for frequencies up to 1 MHz. We conclude that the presented architecture is an important step forward towards accurate wearable bioimpedance acquisition. Employing generalized impedance converters, the output impedance could be further optimized.

A portable bioimpedance instrument for monitoring residual limb fluid volume in people with transtibial limb loss: A technical note

People with transtibial limb loss experience daily changes in volume of their residual limb that affect the fit of their prosthetic socket. A portable instrument was developed to monitor fluid volume changes outside of the laboratory setting. The bioimpedance system applied 26 current bursts per second at frequencies between 3 kHz and 1 MHz, and sensed voltage at up to six channels. Among six voltage-controlled current source circuits and five receive-channel amplifier topologies considered, a differential Howland current pump and a single receive-channel instrumentation amplifier proved the best combination of low noise and low power consumption. Mean RMS errors were 0.07% for extracellular fluid resistance, 2.23% for intracellular fluid resistance, and 1.15% for membrane capacitance.

Current-conveyor-based wide-band current driver for electrical impedance tomography

OBJECTIVE

In this paper a wide-band integrated current driver for electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is presented. The application is primarily for prostate and breast cancer detection which require the tissue to be interrogated at frequencies up to 10 MHz while achieving low harmonic distortion and high accuracy.

APPROACH

The current driver is based on current conveyor architecture and can deliver 1.2 mA of peak to peak ac current between frequencies of 100 Hz-10 MHz. It is fabricated in CMOS 0.18 [Formula: see text]m technology with a power supply of 3.3 V, and occupies a core area of 0.26 [Formula: see text].

MAIN RESULTS

The measured harmonic distortion for a peak current of 1.2 mA is  <[Formula: see text] for frequencies less than 100 kHz, and increases to [Formula: see text] at 10 MHz. The measured output impedance of the current driver is 101 k[Formula: see text] at 1 MHz and 19.5 k[Formula: see text] at 10 MHz.

SIGNIFICANCE

The circuit is suitable for high frequency active electrode applications.

Structured Design Methodology to Achieve a High SNR Electrical Impedance Tomography

In this paper, we present a methodology for designing the main circuit building blocks of an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system. In particular, we derive equations that map system-level EIT specifications to the performance requirements of each circuit block. We also review the circuit architectures that are best suited for meeting a given set of performance requirements. Our proposed design methodology is focused on maximizing the EIT system's signal-to-noise ratio while minimizing total power consumption.

Mirrored enhanced Howland current source with feedback control

An impedance spectrum is calculated by the ratio between an injecting current and a resulting measured voltage, which allows the extraction of electrical properties from the material under study. The current source is considered an essential block to deliver a controlled current to a wide range of working loads and large bandwidth. To comply with such requirements, the current source output impedance must be much higher than the load impedance at each discrete frequency within the range. However, stray capacitance from cables and circuitry reduce the output impedance, especially at higher frequencies. We proposed a modified mirrored enhanced Howland current source (MEHCS) by using the feedback technique for a wide frequency range applications on electrical bioimpedance. We implemented four MEHCS circuits [with/without multiplexer (MUX) and with/without feedback], and then the output current and impedance were measured up to 20 MHz. The proposed current source showed an improvement in the frequency response at lower and higher frequencies when compared to the standard circuit. The measured output impedance was 10 times higher in the proposed circuit than in the standard MEHCS. The use of a feedback also increased the bandwidth in almost one decade in low and high frequencies when loaded with a resistor of about 1 kΩ.

Design and Evaluation of an Electrical Bioimpedance Device Based on DIBS for Myography during Isotonic Exercises

Electrical Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is a technique used to assess passive electrical properties of biological materials. EIS detects physiological and pathological conditions in animal tissues. Recently, the introduction of broadband excitation signals has reduced the measuring time for application techniques such as Electrical Bioimpedance Myography. Therefore, this work is aimed at proposing a prototype by using discrete interval binary sequences (DIBS), which is based on a system that holds a current source, impedance acquisition system, microcontroller and graphical user interface. Measurements between 5 Ω to 5 kΩ had impedance acquisition and phase angle errors of aproximately 2% and were lower than 3 degrees, respectively. Based on a proposed circuit, bioimpedance of the chest muscle (Pectoralis Major) was measured during isotonic exercise (push-up). As a result, our analyses have detected tiredness and fatigue. We have explored and proposed new parameters which assess such conditions, as both the maximum magnitude and tiredness coefficient. These parameters decrease exponentially with consecutive push-ups and were convergent in the majority of the sixteen days of measurement.

A floating wide-band current source for electrical impedance tomography

The quality of reconstructed images in Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) depends on two essential factors: first, precision of the EIT hardware in current injection and voltage measurement and second, efficiency of its image reconstruction algorithm. Therefore the current source plays an important and a vital role in EIT instruments. Floating-load current sources constructed using sink and source drivers have better performance and higher output impedance than grounded-load (single-ended) current sources. In addition, a main feature of this kind is that the current source is not connected to the ground potential directly but via a large impedance. In this paper, we first focus on recent studies on designed EIT current sources, and after that, a practical design of a floating-load high output impedance current source-operating over a wide frequency band-will be proposed in detail. Simulation results of the proposed voltage-controlled current source (VCCS), along with some other models, will be shown and compared. At the end, the results of practical tests on the VCCS and a few EIT images, taken using our prototype EIT system coupled with the mentioned VCCS, will be illustrated which proves the quality of the proposed current source.

Design of Current Sources for Load Common Mode Optimization

Bioimpedance measurement systems often use the Howland current sources to excite the biological material under study. Usually, difference or instrumentation amplifiers are used to measure the resulting voltage drop on this material. In these circuits, common mode voltage appears as artifacts in the measurement. Most researches on current sources are focused on improving the output impedance, letting other characteristics aside. In this paper, it is made a brief review on the load common mode voltage and output swing of various topologies of Howland current sources. Three circuits are proposed to reduce load common mode voltage and enhance load capability by using a fully differential amplifier as active component. These circuits are equated, simulated and implemented. The three proposed circuits were able to deliver an output current with cut-off frequency (-3dB) higher than 1 MHz for loads as big as 4.7 kΩ. The worst measured load common mode voltage was smaller than 24 mV for one of the circuits and smaller than 8 mV for the other two. Consequently, it could be obtained increases in the Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) up to 60 dB when compared to the Enhanced Howland Current Source (EHCS).

Howland current source for high impedance load applications

For Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) applications, the Enhanced Howland Current Source (EHCS) is a popular choice as an excitation circuit due to its simplicity, reliability, and safety. However, its output impedance degradation at high frequency leads to errors that are unacceptable for high load impedance applications, such as the ones which use dry or microelectrodes. Based on a proposed mathematical model, this work designed an EHCS circuit which includes an output current buffer and frequency compensation. PSpice simulations were performed as proof of concept, and then the measured data were collected for comparison. For the proposed circuit, called here Load-in-the-Loop Compensated Enhanced Howland Source (LLC-EHCS), the results showed that the output current errors are lower than 1% up to 3.7 MHz over the load range of 560-2200 Ω and 1.2 MHz with 5.6 kΩ. On the other hand, for the case of the standard EHCS circuit, these frequencies are 170 and 80 kHz, respectively. Also, the output linear swing was found to be 3 times higher than the EHCS. It can be concluded that the proposed LLC-EHCS may be widely used as an excitation circuit for high load and wide bandwidth EIS applications.

Design of current source for multi-frequency simultaneous electrical impedance tomography

Multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography has been evolving from the frequency-sweep approach to the multi-frequency simultaneous measurement technique which can reduce measuring time and will be increasingly attractive for time-varying biological applications. The accuracy and stability of the current source are the key factors determining the quality of the image reconstruction. This article presents a field programmable gate array-based current source for a multi-frequency simultaneous electrical impedance tomography system. A novel current source circuit was realized by combining the classic current mirror based on the feedback amplifier AD844 with a differential topology. The optimal phase offsets of harmonic sinusoids were obtained through the crest factor analysis. The output characteristics of this current source were evaluated by simulation and actual measurement. The results include the following: (1) the output impedance was compared with one of the Howland pump circuit in simulation, showing comparable performance at low frequencies. However, the proposed current source makes lower demands for resistor tolerance but performs even better at high frequencies. (2) The output impedance in actual measurement below 200 kHz is above 1.3 MΩ and can reach 250 KΩ up to 1 MHz. (3) An experiment based on a biological RC model has been implemented. The mean error for the demodulated impedance amplitude and phase are 0.192% and 0.139°, respectively. Therefore, the proposed current source is wideband, biocompatible, and high precision, which demonstrates great potential to work as a sub-system in the multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography system.

Towards the development of a wearable Electrical Impedance Tomography system: A study about the suitability of a low power bioimpedance front-end

Wearable systems for remote monitoring of physiological parameter are ready to evolve towards wearable imaging systems. The Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) allows the non-invasive investigation of the internal body structure. The characteristics of this low-resolution and low-cost technique match perfectly with the concept of a wearable imaging device. On the other hand low power consumption, which is a mandatory requirement for wearable systems, is not usually discussed for standard EIT applications. In this work a previously developed low power architecture for a wearable bioimpedance sensor is applied to EIT acquisition and reconstruction, to evaluate the impact on the image of the limited signal to noise ratio (SNR), caused by low power design. Some anatomical models of the chest, with increasing geometric complexity, were developed, in order to evaluate and calibrate, through simulations, the parameters of the reconstruction algorithms provided by Electrical Impedance Diffuse Optical Reconstruction Software (EIDORS) project. The simulation results were compared with experimental measurements taken with our bioimpedance device on a phantom reproducing chest tissues properties. The comparison was both qualitative and quantitative through the application of suitable figures of merit; in this way the impact of the noise of the low power front-end on the image quality was assessed. The comparison between simulation and measurement results demonstrated that, despite the limited SNR, the device is accurate enough to be used for the development of an EIT based imaging wearable system.

A Sinusoidal Current Driver With an Extended Frequency Range and Multifrequency Operation for Bioimpedance Applications

This paper describes an alternative sinusoidal current driver suitable for bioimpedance applications where high frequency operation is required. The circuit is based on a transconductor and provides current outputs with low phase error for frequencies around its pole frequency. This extends the upper frequency operational limit of the current driver. Multifrequency currents can be generated where each individual frequency is phase corrected. Analysis of the circuit is presented together with simulation and experimental results which demonstrate the proof of concept for both single and dual frequency current drivers. Measurements on a discrete test version of the circuit demonstrate a phase reduction from 25° to 4° at 3 MHz for 2 mAp-p output current. The output impedance of the current driver is essentially constant at about 1.1 M Ω over a frequency range of 100 kHz to 5 MHz due to the introduction of the phase compensation. The compensation provides a bandwidth increase of a factor of about six for a residual phase delay of 4°.

High-power CMOS current driver with accurate transconductance for electrical impedance tomography

Current drivers are fundamental circuits in bioimpedance measurements including electrical impedance tomography (EIT). In the case of EIT, the current driver is required to have a large output impedance to guarantee high current accuracy over a wide range of load impedance values. This paper presents an integrated current driver which meets these requirements and is capable of delivering large sinusoidal currents to the load. The current driver employs a differential architecture and negative feedback, the latter allowing the output current to be accurately set by the ratio of the input voltage to a resistor value. The circuit was fabricated in a 0.6- μm high-voltage CMOS process technology and its core occupies a silicon area of 0.64 mm (2) . It operates from a ± 9 V power supply and can deliver output currents up to 5 mA p-p. The accuracy of the maximum output current is within 0.41% up to 500 kHz, reducing to 0.47% at 1 MHz with a total harmonic distortion of 0.69%. The output impedance is 665 k Ω at 100 kHz and 372 k Ω at 500 kHz.

The differential Howland current source with high signal to noise ratio for bioimpedance measurement system

The stability and signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the current source circuit are the important factors contributing to enhance the accuracy and sensitivity in bioimpedance measurement system. In this paper we propose a new differential Howland topology current source and evaluate its output characters by simulation and actual measurement. The results include (1) the output current and impedance in high frequencies are stabilized after compensation methods. And the stability of output current in the differential current source circuit (DCSC) is 0.2%. (2) The output impedance of two current circuits below the frequency of 200 KHz is above 1 MΩ, and below 1 MHz the output impedance can arrive to 200 KΩ. Then in total the output impedance of the DCSC is higher than that of the Howland current source circuit (HCSC). (3) The SNR of the DCSC are 85.64 dB and 65 dB in the simulation and actual measurement with 10 KHz, which illustrates that the DCSC effectively eliminates the common mode interference. (4) The maximum load in the DCSC is twice as much as that of the HCSC. Lastly a two-dimensional phantom electrical impedance tomography is well reconstructed with the proposed HCSC. Therefore, the measured performance shows that the DCSC can significantly improve the output impedance, the stability, the maximum load, and the SNR of the measurement system.

Multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography system with automatic self-calibration for long-term monitoring

Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is a safe medical imaging technology, requiring no ionizing or heating radiation, as opposed to most other imaging modalities. This has led to a clinical interest in its use for long-term monitoring, possibly at the bedside, for ventilation monitoring, bleeding detection, gastric emptying and epilepsy foci diagnosis. These long-term applications demand auto-calibration and high stability over long time periods. To address this need we have developed a new multi-frequency EIT system called the KHU Mark2.5 with automatic self-calibration and cooperation with other devices via a timing signal for synchronization with other medical instruments. The impedance measurement module (IMM) for flexible configuration as a key component includes an independent constant current source, an independent differential voltmeter, and a current source calibrator, which allows automatic self-calibration of the current source within each IMM. We installed a resistor phantom inside the KHU Mark2.5 EIT system for intra-channel and inter-channel calibrations of all voltmeters in multiple IMMs. We show the deterioration of performance of an EIT system over time and the improvement due to automatic self-calibration. The system is able to maintain SNR of 80 dB for frequencies up to 250 kHz and below 0.5% reciprocity error over continuous operation for 24 hours. Automatic calibration at least every 3 days is shown to maintain SNR above 75 dB and reciprocity error below 0.7% over 7 days at 1 kHz. A clear degradation in performance results with increasing time between automatic calibrations allowing the tailoring of calibration to suit the performance requirements of each application.