Bioinstrumentation & Medical Devices

Measuring and supporting the body. Op-amps, signal conditioning and digital filters, biosignal acquisition and processing for ECG, EEG and EMG, and how monitors, pacemakers, defibrillators, infusion pumps and biosensors work.

• Operational Amplifiers — The op-amp is the universal analog building block. Learn the ideal op-amp rules (virtual short), inverting, non-inverting, voltage follower, summing, difference, instrumentation, integrator and comparator circuits, plus real limitations: gain–bandwidth product, slew rate, offset, input bias current and rail-to-rail behaviour.
• Signal Conditioning & 4–20 mA Transmission — Turning weak, noisy sensor signals into clean, standard ones. Learn amplification and the instrumentation amplifier (CMRR), excitation, bridge completion, filtering, linearisation, isolation, and the industrial 4–20 mA current loop (live zero, loop power budget, 2-wire/4-wire, NAMUR NE43 fault currents, scaling to engineering units), plus noise, grounding and shielding practice.
• Digital Filters & DSP — Digital filters process sampled signals in software or hardware. Learn FIR vs IIR, moving-average filters, windowed-sinc FIR design, linear phase and group delay, IIR biquads, filter order estimation, fixed-point implementation, DSP processors and MAC operations — with a Python FIR design.
• Biosignal Acquisition & Processing: ECG, EEG, EMG — Capturing the body's electrical signals. Learn signal characteristics (amplitude, bandwidth) of ECG, EEG, EMG and EOG, electrodes and the electrode–skin interface, biopotential amplifiers (instrumentation amp, CMRR, right-leg drive, isolation), noise sources (mains, motion, baseline wander, EMG), filtering (high-pass, notch, low-pass), the ECG waves and intervals, QRS detection (Pan–Tompkins), heart-rate variability — with a complete Python QRS detector.
• Medical Devices: Monitoring, Diagnostic & Therapeutic — How the devices in a hospital work. Learn patient monitoring (NIBP oscillometry, pulse oximetry, capnography, temperature), diagnostic devices (glucose meters and biosensors, lab analysers), therapeutic devices (pacemakers, defibrillators, infusion pumps, ventilators, dialysis, electrosurgery, lasers), implantables and power, and how sensors transduce physiology — with Python for SpO₂, defibrillator energy and pacemaker battery life.