Novel System for EMG Instrumentation

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advanced Medical Electronics Corporation (AME) proposes to develop wireless electromyography (EMG) integrated circuits (ICs) for research and clinical applications in neurological pathologies, such as pediatric cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, stroke, etc. The current state-of-the-art for wireless EMG applications is collection of EMG sensors wired to a body-worn amplifier and transmitter device in a star topology. The connecting wires, which are secured to the body, may (1) restrict body movement, especially with children, and (2) add noise and/or motion artifacts. Sensors based on the proposed integrated circuit will not suffer from these limitations since they will locally amplify, digitize and transmit EMG signals without the need for wires, which is of particular importance in dynamic EMG measurements where the subject is in motion. Recent advances in 1C technology enable AME to design and fabricate wireless EMG ICs that integrate the functions of EMG sensing, signal conditioning, digitizing, wireless transmission, and power sourcing into a very small electrode package. An electrode package held to the skin by adhesive will be able to transmit the data via a wireless network to a data collection PC. The ICs will implement a network protocol that will support up to 16 independent wireless EMG sensors. In phase I, AME will completely specify the 1C requirements, design the analog building block circuits, design the custom logic to implement the wireless network protocol, and perform mixed signal simulations. This project's innovation stems from AME's ability to integrate all the functions necessary to perform wireless EMG data collection on a single IC.