Heart Rate Monitor and Data Acquisition System

By

Bill Leece Sofoklis Nikiforos

ECE 345 Section G TA: Ajay Patel August 2, 1999 Project # 1

ABSTRACT
The heart rate monitor consists of biopotential electrodes that are placed on the patient. Body fluids conduct electrical signals from the surface of the heart to the electrodes. Measurements are taken as the difference between two electrodes, while a third electrode is used as a reference. The ECG amplifier circuit then amplifies the signal and sends the information to a PC (via a data acquisition circuit). The information is then analyzed and processed by a LabVIEW program. The user-friendly interface allows for the cardiologist to analyze the patients electrocardiogram. The LabVIEW program goes beyond that of a regular ECG in that it provides information such as heart rate and displays the ecg signal and it is finally transmitted by using a gsm module.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION..1 2. DESIGN PROCEDURE.4 2.1 Electrode Theory...4 2.2 Hardware Design Procedure.5 2.3 Software Design Procedure..9 2.4 NI-DAQ Data Acquisition Board...10 3. DESIGN DETAILS..11 3.1 ECG Design Details...11 3.2 LabVIEW Design Details...13 3.2.1 HRM Front Panel VI...13 3.2.2 ECG Calorie Counter VI.13 3.2.3 Timing Circuit2 VI.14 3.2.4 Counter VI..15 4. DESIGN VERIFICATION...17 4.1 Hardware Design Verification17 4.2 Software Design Verification.17 5. COST Analysis.19 6. CONCLUSION.20 7. Appendix...22 8. REFERENCES.23

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iv

INTRODUCTION
Many hospitals and health clinics use monitoring devices to ensure patients will receive the proper care. Electronic medical devices provide a vast array of medical information while allowing the patient to have a user-friendly interface. The project is based on the ECG, which is a simple monitor that displays the electric signals from the heart. The heart rate monitor receives its input from physiological signals from the electrical pulses of the heart. The signals are fed into a system that implements both hardware and software to displays and amplified and filtered version of the signal while performing real time calculations to display pertinent information related to heart rate. The hardware for the system includes three Silver/Silver-Chloride electrodes and a differential biopotential instrumentation amplifier. The differential amplifier is designed to minimize common mode gain, which should be within about thirty percent of signal variation. The preamp and the difference amplifier are designed to provide a dc-coupled stage gain of approximately 25 1% when cascaded in series. This minimizes the chance of the amplifiers saturating in the power amplification stage by any offset voltages produced by the electrodes. The software acquires data from the output of these amplifiers continuously. LabVIEW then stores the information in buffers, while simultaneously displaying and processing the signal. When these design considerations are undertaken, the heart rate monitor is a reliable and marketable product.

I n p u t S E l e c t r o

i Eg n C a G l f A r o m N m d e L e a d ( sP

p C

I - D A LQ a b V l i f i e r I n t eS r o f af t c w e

Figure 1.1 Block Diagram The first stage of the system consists of the three Ag/AgCl electrode sensors. These electrodes produce a voltage related to the electric field produced by the beating of the heart. The second stage of the system consists of the amplifier hardware, which takes the electrocardiogram signal from the electrodes as its input. The signal is amplified and filtered to provide a meaningful output. The hardware diagram on the next page (figure 1.2) shows the three stages of the amplifier, and a driven right leg circuit. The output signal from this stage is then sent to the NI-DAQ which in turn sends this analog data to LabVIEW for data processing.

Input from Right Leg Input from Electrodes

Right Leg Circuit Bandpass Filter and Power Amplifier Output to PC

Figure 1.2 Hardware Diagram

The fourth and final stage of the system is the software implementation, using the NI-DAQ board and LabVIEW software. The NI-DAQ sends data from the ECG amplifier to a PC. The LabVIEW
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Pre Am p

software is then able to process this data. VIs

(virtual instruments) are graphical programs that

are implemented to graph the data, and to process it (to make calculations for heart rate and caloric expenditure ). The front panel of a LabVIEW program is a GUI that takes user profile inputs and uses this data for calculations.

DESIGN PROCEDURE
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Electrode Theory
An interface is necessary between the body and the electronic measuring device when recording potentials and currents in the body. Biopotential electrodes produce small voltages directly related to the changing electric field produced by a beating heart.. The Ag/AgCl electrode is a practical electrode that approaches the characteristics of a perfectly nonpolarizable electrode. Perfectly nonpolarizable refers to the freedom of ions to pass through the electrode-electrolyte interface to be transduced into an electrical current. The electrode converts the ionic current produced by the body into a voltage, and the ECG amplifies this voltage. The electrode-electrolyte interface is the junction where the ionic transfer occurs. A temporary current is induced in the electrode from the changing electric field of the beating heart. This current causes electrons and anions to move across the electrode-electrolyte interface in the direction opposite to the flow of the current, and for cations to migrate across this interface in the direction of the current. This temporary separation of charge produces a temporary potential. This potential is created from a current induced from the heart and is thus directly related to the changing electric field produced by a beating heart. The ECG circuit hugely amplifies the potential, and the output gives the electric characteristics of a beating heart. Another sensor that was considered was the piezoelectric sensor. Piezoelectric materials generate an electric potential when mechanically strained. During a heart beat, the pressure in the blood vessels is higher than when the heart is in its resting stage. This higher blood pressure causes a physical deformation in the skin, and thus a piezoelectric sensor can produce an electic potential during every heartbeat. The principal reason why the piezeoelectric sensor is less than ideal is that it is pressure

sensitive. In order to pick up a signal the nurse or doctor would have to press the sensor hard against the patient which could cause a permanent deformation of the piezoelectric material This information,
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combined with the fact that hospitals across the

nation use Silver/Silver Chloride sensors, made it

obvious that the silver-silver chloride sensors were the best to use for this project.

Hardware Design Procedure

The hardware design for this project consisted of building an electrocardiograph (ECG) amplifier circuit. The Silver/Silver Chloride electrodes produce induced voltage signals from the heart and the ECG circuit amplifies and filters these signals. Furthermore, the ECG circuit should be able to correctly amplify signals from a patient, even though the patient might not be grounded due to displacement currents flowing to and from their body. The ECG circuit has a number of component parameters that must be met in order for it to operate effectively. First, an important factor for amplifiers is that the first stage (the preamplifier) must have high input impedance and low input bias current. High input impedance is necessary in an amplifier circuit to minimize loading effects. Loading occurs when the gain of the second stage of an amplifier affects the gain of the preamplifier. A low input impedance can cause loading, thereby affecting the characteristics of biopotential electrodes. This loading can result in a distortion of the output signal. Another factor that can cause the distortion of the output signal is the input bias current of the opamps. Input bias current is the amount of current that flows into the op-amp. Ideally, the input bias current is zero, but in practice there is always a small input bias current. Low resistance between the opamp inputs compared to the feedback resistance can cause bias currents, so large resistors are placed between op-amp inputs to minimize this current. Furthermore, the input bias current of the 741 op-amp was found to be significantly higher (800 nA) when compared to the 411 op-amp (200 pA).

For this reason, 411 op-amps were used in the ECG circuit instead of the more traditional 741 op-amps. Another important characteristic of the ECG amplifier circuit is that it must have a high gain since biopotentials are usually on the order of millivolts. These signals must be amplified to a degree such that
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they are capable of being effectively displayed on

recording devices. This means that the signals will

have to have a magnitude on the order of volts, so gains of approximately 1000 are need for the ECG circuit. Finally, the ECG circuit must have the ability to filter out low and high frequency noise. Since biopotentials signals from the heart are in the range of 0.05-150 Hz, the final stage of the ECG amplifier should contain a bandpass filter suited to pass these frequencies but to cut off all others. This frequency response can be achieved by adjusting resistor and capacitor values in the third stage of the amplifier according to the equation (1) below: fc = (2RC)-1 The design of the ECG amplifier was modeled after the amplifier presented in Medical Instrumentation by John G. Webster [3] (see figure 2.1) (1)

Figure 2.1 ECG Amplifier

The actual design of the ECG amplifier differed slightly than the one presented by Webster in that resistors and capacitors were added in parallel to the non-inverting terminals of the preamplifier in order to
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reduce electromagnetic noise and to minimize

input bias currents, and thus minimize loading.

The figure doesnt include electrode impedance, which was a factor in the output. It was decided after some experimentation and research that some important high frequency effect should be displayed by the ECG, so the high frequency cutoff was brought up to 121.3 Hz from 106.1 Hz (see table 2-1 below). Furthermore, to eliminate some low frequency noise, the low frequency cutoff was raised from 0.05 Hz to 1 Hz (see table 2-2). It should be noted that the Design Adjusted ECG cutoff frequencies are only theoretical; in practice, variations in the actual impedance of resistors and capacitors can lead to cut off frequencies slightly different than those listed below Table 2-1 Low-pass filter data. R11 ECG Amplifier From Webster Design Adjusted ECG amp Table 2-2 High-pass filter data R11 ECG Amplifier From Webster Design Adjusted ECG amp 3.3 M C2 1 F 1 F Time Constant 3.3 s Frequency 48.23 mHz 160 k 8200 pF 1.3 s 121.3 Hz 150 k C2 0.01 F Time Constant 1.5 ms Frequency 106.1 Hz

150 k

.15 s

1.06 Hz

The overall gain of the ECG circuit can be calculated by multiplying the gain of each individual stage of the ECG circuit. The differential gain of the voltage followers (first stage) of the ECG circuit is:
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Gd = (Vo1 Vo2) / (V1 V2) = (R1 +

R2 + R3) / R2

(2)

The gain of the differential amplifier (stage 2) is: Gd = R5 / R4 (3)

The frequency response of the high pass filter is: Vout(j)= Vin (ZR / ZR + ZC) = Vo3 (jC1R8 / jC1R8 +1) (4)

This RC combination is a high pass filter since: lim 0 (Vout) = 0

lim (Vout) = Vo3

The gain of the bandpass filter (final stage) is: Gf(j) = (R11 + jC2R10R11) / R10(jC2R11+1) (5)

This RC combination is a low pass filter since: lim 0 (Vfinal) = Vo3(R11/R10)

lim (Vfinal) = Vo3

Thus we see that low frequency signals are amplified in the final stage, while high frequency signal pass through without amplification. The results of these equations (calculated by hand) were verified by PSPICE.
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Software Design Procedure:

The software tool implemented for data acquisition is LabVIEW. LabVIEW was selected instead of HPVEE because LabVIEW is a very versatile programming language that is based on C. LabVIEW is a graphical programming language specially suited for data acquisition applications because it contains libraries for DAQ card data acquisition, as well as for serial port and GPIB. The LabVIEW programming language was also selected because it is very easy to debug due to the fact that is a graphical (as opposed to text) programming language, and the programmer can actually watch data flow through the LabVIEW software circuit and see where any programming inconsistencies might lie. Finally, one of the authors is very familiar with LabVIEW, thus making it the logical choice for data acquisition software. The first version of the LabVIEW data acquisition program used the AI Sample Channel VI from the National Instruments Analog Input Data Acquisition Library. After some testing it was discovered that this was an inefficient data acquisition program since it would only acquire new data from the DAQ once all the software functions in the data acquisition program had been completed. Since it takes a finite amount of time for the software to run for each loop, it was discovered that using the AI Sample Channel VI only allowed for data acquisition at a rate of about 30 samples/sec. Since the bandwidth of a QRS complex is about 35 Hz, sampling at least 70 Hz was necessary to recover this complex, and sampling at 242.6 Hz was necessary to prevent any type of aliasing in the 1.06 Hz 121.3 Hz passband. For this reason, the AI Read VI was selected for data acquisition since when used in conjunction with

the AI Config VI and the AI Clear VI, circular buffers could be set in memory that would allow the AI Read VI to continuously acquire data. Thus data can be obtained without waiting for other software operations to complete since new data could be written to the circular buffers in memory even if the software is at a bottleneck. As such, the sampling rate can be easily set to 242.6 Hz (it is actually set to 256 Hz) and there is no aliasing of the output.
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NI-DAQ Data Acquisition Board

A NI-DAQ AT-MIO-16 board is a 16-bit data acquisition device that is used as an interface between the hardware ECG amplifier and the LabVIEW software that runs on a personal computer. The NI-DAQ board allows analog input data to be written to the LabVIEW software. The only input channel utilized was analog input channel 0. The figure .2.2 shown below is the pinout of the AT-MIO-16.

Figure 2.2 AT-MIO-16 Pinout

DESIGN DETAILS
ECG Design Details
The ECG was designed so that it would pass frequencies from 1 Hz - 125 Hz. In order to obtain a bandpass filter with these characteristics, the actual values for the resistors and capacitors were obtained
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and are listed in the high-pass characteristics listed

in table 3.1, and low-pass filter characteristic listed

in table 3.2, using equation (1). As previously mentioned, the actual frequency cutoff differs from the theoretical values due to the fact that resistors and capacitors are non-ideal and may vary slightly from their listed values. Table 3-1 Low-pass filter data R11 159.9 k C2 8200 pF Time Constant 1.3 s Table 3-2 High-pass filter data R8 147.6 k C1 0.9445 F Time Constant .139 s Frequency 1.14 Hz Frequency 129.34 Hz

Furthermore the final gain of the ECG amplifier was set to 1815.34 thus enabling the ECG circuit to amplify biopotential signals on the millivolt range to the volt range. The gain of stage one was 12.13 obtained by using equation (2). The differential amplifier (stage two) had a gain set to 4.73 as calculated from equation (3). Finally, the gain of the bandpass filter (stage three, power amplifier)

was found to be 31.63 verified from equation (5) and the fact that the gain equation for the bandpass filter reduces to Gf(j) = R11/ R10 at low frequencies. Finally, the CMRR of the differential amplifier was maximized by setting R5 to 47 k. This value for R5 that maximizes the CMRR was experimentally determined using the equation CMRR = Gd / Gc where Gd is the differential gain and Gc is the common mode gain. A variable resistor was used to determine the value that minimized Gc and therefore maximized the CMRR. The value for R5 that caused
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Gc to be minimized was 47 k. Figure 3.1 shows

the output of the difference amplifier of the

Webster circuit with the inputs having a common voltage (1 V p-p sine wave).

Figure 3.1 Common-mode Rejection Ratio

The differential gain Gd = 25.352 and the common-mode gain Gc = 151.54 E-6. The common-mode rejection ratio is simply CMRR = Gd / Gc = 1.673 E5 (a high-quality biopotential amplifier should have a CMRR at least 10,000). In terms of decibels, CMRR(dB) = 104.47.

LabVIEW Design Details

LabVIEW is a hierarchical programming language where the highest level Virtual Instruments (called VIs) calls lower level VIs (referred to as subVIs). In order to view the LabVIEW programs used for this project, access the project web page where the programs have been posted. HRM Front Panel VI

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The highest level VI is the HRM Front

Panel VI. The user enters their age, weight, and

resting heart rate on the front panel of this VI. The user then presses Continue, which liberates the age, weight, and resting heart rate data from the While Loop on the left, allowing to travel into the While Loop on the right. At this point a message appears on the front panel informing the user of their minimum and maximum target heart rate for maximum calorie burning. Once the user presses OK on the message box, the age and weight information is liberated from the right While Loop and it flows into the ECG Calorie Counter VI. ECG Calorie Counter VI The ECG Calorie Counter VI performs three functions. First, it performs real time graphing of ECG data. Secondly, it is able to count the rising edges of a QRS complex from the heart. Finally, this VI can also tell time, and is thus able to divide the number of heartbeats (found from the rising edge detector) by the time that the program has been running. This results in data that can be scaled to give a value for a patients heartbeats per minute. A final trivial point is that this VI can take age, weight, and BPM data to give information on caloric expenditure. The ECG Calorie Counter VI is able to display ECG information by continuously acquiring data from the DAQ. Once the hardware has been configured and a buffer set by the AI Config. VI and the AI

Start VI begins the buffered analog input information, the AI Read VI can read the buffered input data. The output of the AI Read VI is a 2-dimension array of data that is graphed on a strip chart in real time. Once the data acquisition process is complete, the AI Clear VI stops the data acquisition and releases associated internal resources such as buffers.

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Since the data acquisition process is faster

than the software, the circular buffer is set in

memory so that data can be written to the buffer while the graphing process is executing. This way, data can be acquired at the fastest possible rate, and thus no data is lost. For this program, the sampling rate was set to 256 samples/sec. and the buffer size was set to 512. As a general rule, the buffer had to be about twice the sampling rate in order for there to be no overflow. As stated earlier, the ECG Calorie Counter VI also is able to keep time with the help of the Timing Circuit2 VI. This VI makes use of the Tick Count (ms) function, which returns relative time values in the software circuit. Thus the Tick Count function in the outermost While Loop can not tell time, but the relative time difference between when it first executes and when the Tick Count function in the inner While Loop allows differential time calculations to occur. Once data enters the outer While Loop, its Tick Count is set, and the Tick Count value on the inner While Loop decrements with each iteration of the While Loop. This gives a convenient measure of the time it takes for the inner While Loop to execute. Once data exits the inner While Loop (this will occur whenever its Boolean Control evaluates to false), the Tick Count of the outer While Loop will be initialized to a new value. Timing Circuit2 VI The Timing Circuit2 VI is able to keep the program on time but multiplying the total scan time (which is determined by dividing the number of samples by the sampling rate) by the result the iteration number divided by the number of points in a scan. This value is referred to as the goal time. The goal

time is then compared to the differential time determined by the Tick Count functions. If the program is ahead of schedule, it will slow down by the amount that the program is ahead of schedule. If the program is behind schedule, the amount of time that it is behind schedule can be added to the goal time to give an apparent time that is correct. Thus, whether the scan parameters are difficult for the program to meet or
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if they are easily met, the output apparent time

will always be correct, even if the program is

unable to keep up. This allows the ECG Calorie Counter VI to calculate the heart rate in beats per minute regardless of the fact that there may be certain experimental parameters that do not allow the program to meet its time goals. Counter VI The Counter VI counts rising edges of the QRS complex to give beat count information needed for BPM calculations. The Counter VI is able to effectively count noisy data by determining if the average of a variable number of data points in an array are above a threshold voltage set for counting, and if the average of the same number of previous data points is below this threshold. It was experimentally determined that the maximum number of data points that could be averaged for counting that wouldnt give erroneous results was: 2[log2(number of data points)] 1 (6)

It isnt surprising that more data points can be used in averaging if there are more data points in a scan since the ECG Calorie Counter VI samples the data that is sent to the strip chart. The data is a sampled set of data of data that is a sampled from the output of the ECG circuit (at 256 Hz), so in effect, it is sampled twice. With more data points, there is higher resolution in the sampled data, and thus more data points can be looked at for threshold detection. If the number of data points to be looked at for threshold detection is too high, then the criteria for counting will never be meet, and the heart beat counter will always be zero.

One further criterion for counting is that heartbeats should only be counted after a FALSE TRUE transition. This is due to the fact that it is possible for the average of a certain number of points is above the threshold level and the same number of previous points is below the threshold for multiple
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interations of the While Loop. Thus, as shown in

the Counter VI Diagram, heart beats will only be

counted when the threshold criteria has been meet and there is a FALSE TRUE transition on threshold detection output. One question that still needs to be answered is why setting a finite number of points for array operations is even necessary. The answer to this quesition is that if a very large number of array points was set (100,000 for instance), and the outer While Loop of the ECG Calorie Counter VI was removed, the VI would execute very slowly because it has a difficult time handling large numbers for array operations. Furthermore, the program would have a finite run time before it would fail. In other words, once all the array slots were filled, the program would no longer be able to count. Now the reason for even having the outer While Loop becomes evident. With it, the programmer is able to set array sizes that LabVIEW can easily handle (the default for the program is 2048 points) and these arrays reinitialize every time the While Loop executes as many times as there are array points. Thus the advantage of this system is that it allows for counting of rising edges of the QRS complex (since array data is needed to look at past data and thus to assure the proper counting of heart beats) without slowing down the software, and it also has the advantage that it can run indefinately. One final point to mention about the ECG Calorie Counter VI is that the heart rate display in BPM is the average of the BPM value over 256 iterations of the inner While Loop. This is done so that the BPM output is readable since it may change on each While Loop iteration. When this happens the output data appears to flicker on the screen since its value is changing every few milliseconds. With the

array averaging algorithm in place, the BPM output can only change every few seconds, making it much easier to read.

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DESIGN VERIFICATION
Hardware Design Verification
Due to the fact that the license for PSPICE expired on Aug. 1st, it is impossible to access pictures of the final ECG circuit and of the frequency response. Hardcopies of this data will be provided to the TAs. From the Bode plot, it is simple to see that the gain of the ECG circuit is approximately 2,000 since a 1 V sine wave was applied as the input and the output magnitude peaks at approximately 2,000 V. Furthermore, from the Bode plot one can see that cutoff frequencies are at approximately1 Hz and 125 Hz. The calculated frequency responses and gains for each of the biopotential amplifiers that are required according to their respective physiological input signals were given in chapter 2.2. Bode plots were found to verify the instrumentation amplifier characteristics.

Software Design Verification

After each major section of the software was completed, a patient was connected to the ECG amplifier to see if the components funtioned properly. The first component of the software to be completed was the real time graphing of the ECG data. As previously mentioned, when the first version of this program was tested, it was discovered that software bottlenecks only allowed for sampling at 30 Hz, so the output was highly distored. This problem was solved, as explained earlier, by use of circular buffers and the AI Read VI. The next major software component to be tested was the timing circuit. The timing circuit was tested by running the program and a stopwatch simulaneaously and comparing the output of the two

timing devices after several minutes. The timing circuit was acurate to a value less than the human error involved in trying to push two buttons simulaneously.

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The final major software component to be

tested was the counter. The counter was tested by

determining if it could correctly count noisy low frequency that a human would also be able to count. The count value that was obtained by the human counter was then compared to the value calculated by the Counter VI, and it was determined that this VI was able to accurately count noisy low frequency noise like heart beats. The final software test was to see if the LabVIEW program could count pulses and simultaneously keep time. This was done by applying low frequency sine waves that were not properly grounded to the DAQ. The sine wave was purposely grounded improperly to simulate the type of noisy ECG data that the LabVIEW program would encounter. Furthermore, once patients were hooked up to the ECG circuit, their heart rate in BPM was determined manually and compared to the results from LabVIEW. The LabVIEW results compared very well with those determined manually. Due to space restrictions for this report, the LabVIEW code could not be included here. It has been uploaded to the project web site, so the LabVIEW programs can be viewed from there.

COST ANALYSIS
The prototype cost analysis takes into account the price of the product we intend to market. Since it is the prototype, the costs will be decrease due to mass production efficiencies. Some parts, such as the disposable electrodes ( 3M Red dot) and software (LabVIEW) were donated, but the costs were still
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figured in the prototype cost. The cost of the case market value price.

of electrodes is estimated to be about $45 based on

Labor
Typical EE entry salary $50,000/year * 1year/240 days * 1 day/8 hours = $26/hour $26/hour x 2.5 x 120 hours = $7,800 (per person) Total Labor $15,600

Parts
3M Red Dot Electrodes Case (chassis) Printed circuit board 411 Op amps, Resistors, capacitors, leads, etc. LabVIEW Software NI - DAQ Total Parts $ 15 $ 995 $ 795 ________________ $1,960 $ 45 $ 10 $ 100

Grand Total = Total Labor + Total parts = $17,560

CONCLUSION
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The ECG Calorie Counter device was

successfully developed. The ECG amplifier circuit

was able to amplify and filter a biopotential signal to make it suitable for display on LabVIEW while preventing loading and protecting the patient from macroshock. Interface between the ECG hardware and the LabVIEW software was successfully achieved by an AT-MIO-16 data acquisition card. The LabVIEW program is able to sucessfully determine the frequency of a signal and convert that number into beats per minute. This ability was successfully demonstrated when the LabVIEW program was able to convert the frequency of input sine waves to cycles per minute by using the counting and timing algorithm. Because LabVIEW was able to correctly count and time input data of a known frequency, it can be assumed that it is also able to determine the beats per minute of a heart. Furthermore, BPM data obtained with LabVIEW supported heart rate values obtained manually. Finally, the calorie counter was able to sucessfully determine calories burned per hour and total calories burned through a simple algorithm that calculated caloric expenditure as a function of age, weight, and heart rate. The best way to test our projects accuracy would have been to buy a cheap heart rate monitor (such as one that comes on a watch) and to have compared the BPM data from this heart rate monitor to the one that was constructed for this Senior Design project. Furthermore, although the output signal from the ECG had very little noise due to the extra care taken to minimize noise, an even cleaner signal could have been obtained in the ECG circuit was implemented on a PC board and enclosed in a Faraday box. If there had been more time avaliable to work on this project, a hardware version of the LabVIEW program would have been a nice addition. Using a 555 timer circuit and modulo-6 and modulo-10 counters would have allowed for heart rate display (in BPM) on an LED display. It would

have been interesting to see if the hardware output would have agreed with the software output, and this addition would have given the authors some extra experinece in digital design.

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APPENDIX A. TOLERANCE ANALYSIS

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The bandpass filter of the ECG amplifier in the

final circuit had values as follows: R11 = 159.9 k,

R10 = 4.666 k , R8 =R9 =147.6 k, C1 = 0.9445 F, C2 = 7695 pF

Figure 7.1 Bandpass Filter Figure 7.1 above shows the schematic of the bandpass filter (not labeled accordingly). The resistor R11 was found that this gives a cutoff at 121.3 Hz. The PSPICE simulations were done to prove experimental work. The acceptable values for the upper frequency are 100 Hz 150 Hz. Solving these boundary conditions we see that the acceptable range for R11 are from 137.89 k to 206.8 k. The acceptable range for our high pass cutoff will be met as long as R11 = 159.9 k 1.16%. Making the potentiometer R5 to 47 k solved the common-mode voltage problem discussed in the design details. The SPICE simulations on the next page (figure 7.2) show that the acceptable range before poor noise occurs is 47 k 5 %. The 5% variation will be in the acceptable range of CMRR

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Figure 7.2 PSPICE Simulations of Common-mode voltages

References
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[1] Health Resource Center at the McKinley Health Center, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, Determining Your Target Heart Rate Range, 1995, http://www.uiuc.edu/departments/mckinley/health-info/fitness/exercise/targ-hea.html. [2] National Instruments, LabVIEW User Manual, National Instruments Corporation, 1996. [3] Webster, John G., Medical Instrumentation: Application and Design. 3rd Ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998.

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