An ultra low-power dynamic translinear cardiac sense amplifier for pacemakers

In this paper, a cardiac sense amplifier, i.e. the front end of a pacemaker, based on the dynamic translinear (DTL) circuit technique is presented. The system consists of a voltage-to-current converter, a bandpass filter, absolute value and RMS-DC converter circuits and an event detection circuit. From simulations, it is demonstrated that the DTL technique is a good alternative to conventional sense amplifiers for intra cardiac applications since they handle the required dynamic range and perform non-linear operations at low supply voltages. The circuit operates from a 2-V supply voltage and dissipates 240 nW.