A Compact and Energy-Efficient Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Spectral Analysis Chip for Wearable Healthcare Devices

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a key biomarker for assessing autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and overall cardiovascular health. A dedicated HRV chip enables real-time, low-power, and accurate spectral analysis of heart activity, ensuring continuous monitoring in compact, wearable formats. In this paper, a high-speed and low-cost HRV spectral analysis chip is proposed. The chip circuit realizes a novel HRV spectral computation method developed by combining the use of the integral pulse frequency modulation (IPFM) model and the compressed sensing (CS) framework. The proposed CS-HRV chip circuit mainly comprises an IPFM module, which converts ECG-derived heartbeat timing into data matrices first, and a GPSR module, which then reconstructs the HRV spectrum. Implemented using TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology, the CS-HRV chip operates at 10 MHz with low power consumption (12.15 mW) and a compact 299.2 K gate design.Clinical Relevance- The proposed CS-HRV chip is low-power, high-speed, and small-sized, making it suitable for wearable health devices and real-time HRV spectral analysis, aiding in early detection of ANS or cardiac disorders.