An FPGA-based embedded system for portable and cost-efficient bio-sensing: A low-cost controller for biomedical diagnosis

Abstract

This paper presents a design of an embedded system for a portable and cost effective bio-sensing. With our system, users can easily and cost-efficiently generate the necessary control signals such as cyclic waves for bio-sensors with precisely controlled timing. The bio-sensing system consists of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) used for data acquisition, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) in order to generate cyclic wave for a biosensor, field programmable gate array (FPGA) to interface with computer, and potentiostat for biosensor signal processing. Our system has two modes that are software controlled real time mode for real-time data acquisition and hardware controlled burst mode for high-speed data acquisition. The system accuracy was evaluated by series R-test. In cyclic voltammetry test with a Ru(NH3)6Cl3, a graph provided by our system has 2.77% relative error at current peak compared with the data acquired by a 18 times more expensive commercial system.