An Integrated Analog Front-End System on Flexible Substrate for the Acquisition of Bio-Potential Signals

The application of a versatile, low-temperature thin-film transistor (TFT) technology is presently described as the implementation on a flexible substrate of an analog front-end (AFE) system for the acquisition of bio-potential signals. The technology is based on semiconducting amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO). The AFE system consists of three monolithically integrated constituent components: a bias-filter circuit with a bio-compatible low cut-off frequency of ≈1 Hz, a 4-stage differential amplifier offering a large gain-bandwidth product of ≈955 kHz, and an additional notch filter exhibiting over 30 dB suppression of the power-line noise. Respectively built using conductive IGZO electrodes with thermally induced donor agents and enhancement-mode fluorinated IGZO TFTs with exceptionally low leakage current, both capacitors and resistors with significantly reduced footprints are realized. Defined as the ratio of the gain-bandwidth product of an AFE system to its area, a record-setting figure-of-merit of ≈86 kHz mm^-2 is achieved. This is about an order of magnitude larger than the < 10 kHz mm^-2 of the nearest benchmark. Requiring no supplementary off-substrate signal-conditioning components and occupying an area of ≈11 mm² , the stand-alone AFE system is successfully applied to both electromyography and electrocardiography (ECG).