Low data rate ultra wideband ECG monitoring system

This paper presents a successfully implemented wireless electrocardiograph monitoring using low data rate ultra wideband (UWB) transmission. Low data rate ultra wideband is currently under consideration for the newly formed wireless body area network (WBAN) group (IEEE802.15.6) to develop a standard for wireless vital sign monitoring. Maximizing the transmission power of the transmitter and reducing the stringent requirements and complexity of the receiver have always been the key considerations for an UWB transceiver. Multiple pulses per bit has been sent in our low data rate UWB prototype system to increase the transmitter power, to reduce the complexity of the receiver and to ease the requirement on the receiver´s analog to digital converter. Non-coherent technique has been used for the demodulation of UWB signals at the receiver that reduces the receiver complexity further.