Texas Instruments has created a portable electrocardiogram on a chip, integrating a respiration impedance meter and an analog front end. The 24-bit ADS1298R packs 44 discretes, reducing both component count and power consumption for an ECG by about 95 percent compared to a fully discrete design, TI said.

The chip is part of a growing range of off-the-shelf integrated devices for medical applications. TI, Analog Devices and others are created such parts in dedicated business units organized over the past several years to addressing growing opportunities in medical electronics as more health care applications go digital and mobile.

TI's ADS1298R comes in eight-, six-, and four-channel versions, all providing 20 milliohms of resolution for

respiration impedance. The device includes eight analog-to-digital converters, eight programmable gain amplifiers and eight active filters. An evaluation platform includes analysis tools such as an oscilloscope, FFT, histogram displays and optional external reference circuits.

The ADS1298R devices are now in production and come in an 8mm x 8mm BGA package with costs ranging from $25.95 for an eight-channel version to $13.95 for a four channel version.