Portable ECG Logger

Exhibitor: Jamil Khan

Supervisor: Udantha Abeyratne

Research Group: Electromagnetics and Imaging

Industry Sector: Health / Medical Technology

Second only to cancer, heart disease is the western world's greatest killer. Improvements in diagnosis and treatment tools are welcomed by the medical community, who are desperately seeking better ways to help their patients. One of the most useful diagnostic tools for heart patients is the electrocardiogram (ECG) which operates by measuring the tiny electrical signals emitted by your heart through chest electrodes. Cardiologists would like to collect large amounts of ECG information from a patient over a long period of time, but crude technologies have limited our ability to perform these long term measurements.

The goal of this project is to develop a device classified as a "Holter Monitor" which outperforms currently available devices, through the use of more powerful components and better manufacturing techniques that were unavailable until recently. It is intended that this very product will go through medical approval and will in a year or two be found saving peoples lives. This device is designed to record two channels of full-spectrum ECG continuously for a week. It stores this enormous amount of information on a Flash memory IC, capable of handling 2GBits of data. Powered by a lithium polymer battery, this extremely low powered device is designed to consume less than 5mA of power in full operation. The device will be the size of a credit card, and we are aiming for a thickness of less than 5mm.

The first stage in producing this device is the creation of a prototype called the "Handheld Logger". It is functionally identical, but physically much larger than the final "Credit Card Logger". This thesis has been focussed on bringing the Handheld Logger from a completely fresh start to completion.

Thesis Document (PDF)

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