Development of Energy-Efficient Analog Front-End Circuits for Wearable Health Monitoring

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18204211

Abstract

Wearable health monitoring devices have become a cornerstone in preventive healthcare, enabling continuous physiological signal acquisition and real-time data analysis. However, the energy demands of these devices, particularly in the analog front-end (AFE) circuits, pose significant challenges for battery-powered operation.This study presents the design and optimization of an energy-efficient AFE for wearable health monitoring applications. The proposed design incorporates low-power operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs), chopper-stabilized amplifiers for noise suppression, and optimized biasing strategies to reduce quiescent current consumption. Simulation results demonstrate a 35% reduction in power usage compared to conventional AFE architectures, achieving a total consumption of 42 μW while maintaining high signal fidelity with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 82 dB. The validation of the design was done by simulation in Cadence Virtuoso with standard CMOS 180 nm technology parameter. It has been estimated that a 100 mAh, 3.7 V battery will last for 5692.3 hours (237.2 days) with a 55x increase to 8809.5 hours (367.1 days), given no battery-life, use, or performance degradation. The results explain the proposed architecture is capable of optimizing the operational time of the wearable devices by a wide margin. The findings show that the proposed method has the potential of unlocking the possibility of longer battery life, enhanced portability, and reliability of wearable health monitoring devices.