Design and measured assessment of a MOS-only, capacitorless, miniature 64-channel headstage circuit for high-density surface electromyography
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: We present a miniature (30x34 mm) 64-channel data acquisition headstage optimized for high-density surface electromyography. Methods: The headstage is made up of a multi-channel ASIC analogue front-end utilizing only MOS transistors, fabricated in
350 nm CMOS technology (IC die dimensions 6.9x1.8mm), combined with an off-the-shelf multi-channel current-input ADC (DDC264, Texas Instruments). The ASIC analogue front end employs MOS-based capacitors for both processing and AC-coupling. Results: The combination of these two sub-circuits enables the simultaneous recording of 64 channels at a typical sampling rate of 4 KHz with a maximum analogue bandwidth of 0.5-1500 Hz and aresolution of 20-bits. Typical input-referred-noise, determined by the analogue front-end, is 3.5 µVRMS for a surface EMG bandwidth of interest of 20-500 Hz. This two-chip solution results in a power consumption of 5 mW per channel. Analogue performance variability of the custom ASIC was characterized across a dataset of 960-channels (15 dies) from two fabrication runs. Conclusions: This work practically demonstrates the viability of using both a MOS-only analogue front-end and commercially available off-shelf high-performance back-end hardware already developed for medical imaging applications to record high-density surface biosignals. The aforementioned techniques can be employed to reduce the size and cost for systems or wearable devices; facilitating the translation of high-density bio-acquisition setups from the research environment to more affordable commercial products.
350 nm CMOS technology (IC die dimensions 6.9x1.8mm), combined with an off-the-shelf multi-channel current-input ADC (DDC264, Texas Instruments). The ASIC analogue front end employs MOS-based capacitors for both processing and AC-coupling. Results: The combination of these two sub-circuits enables the simultaneous recording of 64 channels at a typical sampling rate of 4 KHz with a maximum analogue bandwidth of 0.5-1500 Hz and aresolution of 20-bits. Typical input-referred-noise, determined by the analogue front-end, is 3.5 µVRMS for a surface EMG bandwidth of interest of 20-500 Hz. This two-chip solution results in a power consumption of 5 mW per channel. Analogue performance variability of the custom ASIC was characterized across a dataset of 960-channels (15 dies) from two fabrication runs. Conclusions: This work practically demonstrates the viability of using both a MOS-only analogue front-end and commercially available off-shelf high-performance back-end hardware already developed for medical imaging applications to record high-density surface biosignals. The aforementioned techniques can be employed to reduce the size and cost for systems or wearable devices; facilitating the translation of high-density bio-acquisition setups from the research environment to more affordable commercial products.
Date Issued
2026-07-02
Date Acceptance
2026-06-25
Citation
Sensors, 2026, 26 (13)
ISSN
1424-2818
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Sensors
Volume
26
Issue
13
Copyright Statement
© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
License URL
Identifier
10.3390/s26134181
Subjects
HD sEMG
electromyography
multi-channel acquisition
analogue front-end
MOS-capacitors
pseudo-resistors
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 4181