Continuous in-ear Vital Sign Monitoring challenges due to sensor’s high-power consumption

How to overcome the limiting high battery consumption of continuous vital-sign Monitoring?

Choosing the right sensor is crucial when it comes to designing technology for wearable

devices. You have to consider power consumption and battery life, Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR), size as well as manufacturing cost. With such a myriad of developments taking place within the semiconductor sphere for the healthcare and consumer markets, how can you be guaranteed to receive the most innovative solutions to meet your goals?

Next to that, when considering battery consumption specifically, there are a number of in-ear vital sign monitoring (VMS), challenges that result from sensor’s ; high-power consumption, which needs to be addressed. With the battery consumption too high for continuous in-ear VSM, most of the optical sensor’s currently on the market don’t perform the way companies need them to. This is where ActLight outperforms the competition& we offer practical solutions to the high battery consumption typically seen with the continuous VSM of other industry leaders.

ActLight is driven by the ambition to help semiconductor companies and their innovation process and you can count on our technology licenses and expert team to equip you with the best solutions to reach your goals.

What sets ActLight sensor’s apart from the rest? ActLight Dynamic PhotoDiode technology offers technological breakthroughs in both light-sensing as well as offering a superior Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) of >90dB. Please find a summary of our benefits below:

• High SNR: The absence of an analog amplifier improves the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of the DPD, which translates into lower power consumption and smaller sensor size.

• High output signal: The DPD has high output signal, therefore it can be directly connected to digital circuits.

• Our Dynamic PhotoDiode is the only sensor with a digital output– all the other photodiodes on the market have an analog output that needs to be analogically amplified and then converted into digital. We simplify the entire signal chain, making it much easier to incorporate our sensor technology into your projects.

• The small sensor size means that it’s perfect for in-ear VSM for use in hearable devices (earbuds, hearing aids, etc.). Before ActLight, it was impossible to use these kinds of sensor’s in in-ear devices due to size restrictions, but our technology allows for their use with the added benefit of high monitoring precision.

• Low power consumption (10X less than other light sensor’s on the market today): Due to the better SNR performance of our photodiode, less light is needed to get an accurate PPG signal. The digital-only ActLight sensor’s allow for more than 3X extension of the battery life. This reduced power consumption means less frequent recharging, as well as increased comfort during wearing (less heat than in comparable hearable devices).

• Can be used with standard CMOS and other technology: because the circuits surrounding the photodiode are much simpler, fewer blocks are needed, so the photodiode can easily be integrated using standard technology.

• Innovative and unique device structure creates the best in class SNR. Moreover, the digital read-out does not require a signal amplification chain as is normally seen with biometric sensor’s using conventional photodiodes, where the amplifier becomes the main source of the noise. ActLight Dynamic Photodiode technology provides a direct digital output that eliminates the need for the analog amplifier improving the SNR of the system.

• Low voltage: Our sensor does not require high voltage: in fact, it just uses Vdd to operate.

• The simple device structure favors the miniaturization of the PPG module

• Lower manufacturing costs compared with other brands: The smaller silicon area leads to significant cost reduction. Additionally, our Dynamic PhotoDiode, its front-end, and TDC circuits are implemented on the same substrate in standard 180nm CMOS technology. The DPD sensor can also be fabricated with other very low costs technologies, which provides cost-saving to our customers.

ActLight’s light sensor technology combines performance and innovation, to help you resolve your engineering challenges. Let us bring the magic to your innovation process& our technology licenses and expert team will equip you with the best solutions needed to reach your goals. 

Find out more at: https://act-light.com/