VIT develops mixed signal chip for self-diagnosing health devices

CHENNAI: The Centre for Nanoelectronics and VLSI Design (CNVD) at VIT Chennai has designed and developed a unique Mixed-Signal Readout Interface (RoI) chip, capable of integrating into portable medical devices for self-diagnostic applications.

The chip integrates both analogue and digital circuits to exploit the advantages of both designs, thereby efficiently picking up and processing the physical parameters of the user via a range of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors for healthcare applications, including heart rate, blood pressure and other cardiac functions measuring devices.

In an official statement, VIT said that the strategic front-end analogue electronic circuit with a gain-enhancement design provides increased overall gain initially. The highly stable multi-stage amplifier ensures the stability and accuracy of ROI.

The subsequent Computation Sharing High-Speed (CSHS) Binary Multiplier, designed for filtering of noises through a digital filter, is ultra-compact, unlike other existing devices.

These combined designs ensure signal processing with a lower footprint and a minimal power consumption of 14 per cent lower than the market available products. These salient features, with the added advantage of a 4 per cent reduction in delay, make this chip well-suited for micro sensor-based handheld glucose monitoring devices and electronic stethoscopes.

Additionally, the dynamic logic designs incorporating a 16-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) further enhance speed performance over conventional domino logic as the final stage. This ensures ultra-low turnaround time, resulting in an extremely fast diagnosis of the health parameters.

The fabricated chip was formally handed over to the VIT Chennai team by Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, during a function held at the Semiconductor Laboratory recently.