A Behind-The-Ear Patch-Type Mental Healthcare Integrated Interface with Adaptive Multimodal Offset Compensation and Parasitic Cancellation

Abstract

A behind-the-ear (BTE) integrated interface for mental healthcare applications is presented, featuring optimized BTE electrode configurations and wide multimodal biomedical IC with adaptive compensation capabilities. The proposed IC supports 8 bio-potential (ExG), 1 photoplethysmogram (PPG), 1 galvanic skin response (GSR), 1 bio-impedance (BioZ), and 2 stimulation channels. The ExG channel achieves 2.5GΩ input impedance, boosted by 308 times with offset compensated auxiliary path (OCAP) architecture, and its AC input impedance characteristic is boosted further by dual resolution external positive feedback loop (DR-EPFL) scheme. An area and energyefficient GSR-embedded ECG recording scheme is presented. For comprehensive multimodal sensing features, dual-slope PPG channel with parasitic capacitance compensation, electrode-tissue impedance adaptive stimulator, and high dynamic range BioZ channel are integrated. The IC was fabricated in a 0.18-μm BCD process and integrated into a BTE patch-type device prototype. System-level feasibility was experimentally verified through invivo stress measurements with virtual reality (VR) environment, demonstrating effective mental health monitoring capabilities.