1120 Mw Maxim Health Sensor Platform Promo 5fa0504a3924d

Platform Slashes Six Months Off Development of Healthcare Wearables

Nov. 2, 2020

A wrist-form-factor reference design stands ready to collect blood oxygen, ECG, heart rate, body temperature and activity data.

David Maliniak

Related To: Maxim Integrated

Developers of wearable health monitors can recoup at least six months of development time using the Health Sensor Platform 3.0 (HSP 3.0) from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. Also known as MAXREFDES104#, this ready-to-wear, wrist-form-factor reference design monitors blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate (HR), body temperature, and motion. Included algorithms provide HR, heart-rate variability (HRV), respiration rate (RR), SpO2, body temperature, sleep quality, and stress-level information at clinical-grade levels. It allows wearable designers to start collecting data immediately, saving at least six months over building these devices from scratch. Designed for wrist-based form factors, HSP 3.0 can be adapted for other dry-electrode form factors such as chest patches and smart rings.

Compared to its predecessor, Health Sensor Platform 2.0 (HSP 2.0), the HSP 3.0 adds optical SpO2 measurement and dry-electrode capability to the ECG. As a result, it can enable end solutions to monitor cardiac heart and respiratory issues for management of ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), infectious diseases (e.g. COVID-19), sleep apnea, and atrial fibrillation (AFib). Compared to its predecessor, the narrower form factor and enhanced optical architecture of HSP 3.0 improves signal-acquisition quality and uses upgraded microcontroller, power, security, and sensing ICs. The reference design includes complete optical and electrode designs, along with algorithms to meet clinical requirements.

HSP 3.0 or MAXREFDES104# includes the following sensor, power-management, microcontroller, and algorithm products:

• The MAX86176 is a low-noise optical photoplethysmography (PPG) and electrical ECG analog front end (AFE), which offers a 110-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to add SpO2 saturation capability and over 110 dB common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) for dry electrode ECG applications.

• The MAX20360 is a highly integrated power and battery management IC (PMIC) optimized for advanced body-worn health sensing devices.

• The MAX32666 is a Bluetooth (BLE)-enabled, ultra-low power microcontroller with two Arm Cortex-M4F cores and an additional SmartDMA which permits running the BLE stack independently, leaving the two main cores available for major tasks.

• The MAX32670 is an ultra-low-power microcontroller dedicated to Maxim’s PPG algorithms of pulse rate, SpO2, HRV, RR, sleep-quality monitoring, and stress monitoring.

• The MAX30208, a low-power, high-accuracy digital temperature sensor, comes in a small package size of 2 mm x 2 mm. It has 33% lower operating current compared to the closest competitive solution.

The HSP 3.0, also known as MAXREFDES104#, is available with hardware, firmware, and algorithms for $400 at Maxim Integrated’s website.

Maxim Integrated, www.maximintegrated.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our contributor's packet, in which you'll find an article template and lots more useful information on how to properly prepare content for us, and send to me along with a signed release form.

About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.