A low-light-level sensor for medical diagnostic applications

Author

Perelman, Yevgeny ; Ginosar, Ran

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Technion-Israel Inst. of Technol., Haifa, Israel

Volume

36

Issue

10

fYear

2001

fDate

10/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1553

Lastpage

1558

Abstract

A low-level light sensor and preprocessor for a disposable medical probe is described. A 10-Hz 4-μA/cm² input optical signal in the visible spectrum is assumed in chemoluminant diagnostic applications. A single-bit first-order sigma-delta modulator has been employed for analog-to-digital conversion, thanks to its robustness, simplicity, inherent linearity, and high signal-to-noise ratio. A current buffer has been used to replicate the weak signal with sufficient bandwidth. Tests have shown the feasibility of this approach, and have also enabled improvements of the design

Keywords

biomedical electronics; buffer circuits; chemiluminescence; patient diagnosis; photodetectors; sigma-delta modulation; analog-to-digital conversion; chemoluminant reaction; current buffer; disposable medical probe; low-light-level sensor; medical diagnostics; optical signal; preprocessor; sigma-delta modulator; signal-to-noise ratio; visible spectrum; Analog-digital conversion; Biomedical optical imaging; Delta-sigma modulation; Medical diagnosis; Medical diagnostic imaging; Optical buffering; Optical modulation; Optical sensors; Probes; Sensor phenomena and characterization;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.953484

Filename

953484