Versatile sensing integrated on-chip
Early fitness and health-monitoring devices depended almost entirely on heart rate monitoring. But as applications have become more sophisticated, the need for recording other bio-metric data has increased. In particular, Samsung has also integrated Analog Front Ends (AFEs) for bio-electrical impedance and analysis (BIA), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR). Similar to the way advance image processing chips integrate a variety of application-specific and general purpose components, the Samsung Bio-processor also integrates microcontroller units (MCU), a power management integrated circuit (PMIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), and eFlash memory into a single package.
High-powered, but low power consumption
According to Samsung’s product catalog, the chip has 512KB of Flash, 256KB of RAM, and features a Cortex M4 CPU. By integrating these processing components with the analog sensing circuitry, the Bio-processor should greatly reduce power consumption in health-monitoring and fitness applications, as shown by the accompanying chart provided by Samsung. The integrated unit is also only one-quarter of the size of the discrete components it replaces.
The combination of low power, small size, and integrated processing should help enable more compact, less-expensive wearables, with increased functionality and longer battery life. We’ll be meeting with Samsung’s Bio-processor product team at CES this week, and will be reporting on any additional information we get. For now, Samsung says the part is in production, although its product catalog still shows it as under development.
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