A High Gain, Low Power Operational Transconductance Amplifier Capable of Recording and Processing ECG Signals

Based on high output resistor current mirrors and differential pair inputs, a new operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is designed in this paper that can collect, filter, denoise and amplify electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The OTA is designed on a 0.18μm CMOS process with a supply voltage of 1.8V. In this experiment, the ECG signal generated by the human model is first simulated, which has a noise of 50 Hz from electromagnetic interference, especially the electrical power lines. The differential input pair is then connected to the model, and it is proved that it can denoise the common-mode noise. Finally, the designed OTA is connected to the manikin, and the experimental results are compared with the traditional OTA. The design achieves a differential-mode gain of 43.56dB and a common-mode gain of -31.36dB while maintaining a differential input voltage swing of 1Vpp. Experimental results show that the OTA can denoise and amplify the ECG signal without distortion.