LCD Display Inverter

In recent years, the medical semiconductor market has become one of the fastest growing semiconductor market areas. According to the market research organization Databeans’s 2010 estimate of medical semiconductors, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2010 and 2015 will reach 9.4%. Among them, due to the trend of family health care and the increase of people’s interest in health and health care equipment, the consumer health and medical classification market has begun to grow at a relatively rapid rate. As the premier supplier of high-performance silicon solutions for high-efficiency Electronic products, ON Semiconductor provides a broad lineup of medical application products to help innovative medical electronic products achieve higher integration, miniaturization, high energy efficiency, and ease of use , Portability and durability, in line with the development of China’s medical equipment trends.

China’s medical equipment and medical semiconductor trends

A variety of factors will comprehensively promote the growth of China’s medical equipment market: The first is the aging of the population. By 2030, the percentage of China’s population over 60 will increase from 12.3% in 2010 to 24.4%, and it is estimated to increase to 33.9 by 2050. %; and people’s life expectancy will be longer, and the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and asthma will increase; there is also an expansion of the middle class, as well as increased medical expenditures, health insurance reforms, and so on.

From the perspective of medical equipment, China’s domestic medical equipment research and development has increased, and local manufacturers have tried their best to provide products with lower costs than foreign competitors. Medical equipment for the Chinese market is also constantly seeking to improve reliability, accuracy and precision, ease of use and portability. Correspondingly, medical semiconductors used in medical equipment are moving toward higher integration, miniaturization, and high energy efficiency, which has also turned consumer health equipment to use standard components.

ON Semiconductor’s semiconductor solutions for consumer health and medical equipment

Semiconductor technology plays an important role in the field of medical device innovation. ON Semiconductor has a senior engineering team that deeply understands the quality, reliability and long-term requirements of the medical market, and has global manufacturing and logistics capabilities to help medical device developers solve their unique design challenges with high-performance silicon solutions.

ON Semiconductor’s medical semiconductor products cover key medical market segments such as implants and clinical healthcare, consumer health and hearing health. This article focuses on consumer health applications, discussing ON Semiconductor’s high-precision, high-reliability, and low-energy solutions.

1) Used for portable medical equipment such as blood glucose metersQ32M210 32Bit mixed signalMCUplan

Case studies on the status quo of diabetes in China show that due to changes in lifestyle and diet, the influence of Western diet patterns, lack of exercise, as well as the process of turning agricultural countries into industrialized countries, more office jobs, etc., diabetes in China is also on the rise. More people need to use blood glucose meters to monitor themselves for trend analysis and communication with doctors, which promotes the use and sales of blood glucose meters (BGM).

ON Semiconductor provides a precision mixed-signal microcontroller (MCU) Q32M210 used in portable testing equipment such as blood glucose meters. This device is an analog front end designed for high precision. Its key advantage is the use of 16-bit low-noise analog-to-digital converters (ADC) and industry standard ARM^® Cortex™-M3 processor; low leakage current and low dynamic power can achieve ultra-low energy work (standby current

Figure 1: Q32M210 32-bit MCU block diagram that provides ultra-low power consumption, precision mixed signal processing and high reliability

Q32M210 adopts more precise blood glucose level calculation. In addition to prolonging the battery life, more blood glucose testing is performed before the battery needs to be replaced. It can also reduce system complexity, reduce external component requirements, and support smaller form factor PCB design and The blood glucose meter is smaller in size, and reducing the number of external components also reduces the system cost.

In terms of product development, Q32M210 has very good flexibility. It can realize programmable gain amplifier, configurable sampling rate through software-configured analog front end and digital-to-analog converter (DAC), as well as three 10-bit DACs and integrated low conduction Impedance switch. The device can be customized, does not require a new external circuit to match the new test paper type, and is compatible with a wide range of sensor types. Existing Cortex-M3 applications can be easily ported to Q32M210, simplifying software development. Ease of integration, standardization and connection also fully reflect design flexibility; development support includes evaluation and development kits (EDK), firmware libraries, and code examples.

It can be seen from the Q32M210 application example that although the traditional architecture blood glucose meter is accurate and simple, it is not flexible. The overall semiconductor BOM cost is about 5.75 US dollars (in a batch of 5 million pieces, the same below); and the optimized architecture blood glucose meter is extremely accurate And rugged features, and can be reconfigured (supports advanced indicator development), the overall semiconductor BOM cost is approximately US$4.50.

Figure 2: Comparison of traditional architecture (left) and optimized architecture (right) of blood glucose meters, the green part can use ON Semiconductor devices

2) For hearing aidsDSPSystem solutions

In 2012, nearly 12 million hearing aids are expected to be sold worldwide. The driving force comes from the aging of the population, longer life expectancy, and lower birth rate; rising income in emerging markets (China, India, Brazil and Eastern Europe); transitional noise, diabetes, and ototoxicity ( Cases of hearing loss caused by diseases such as the side effects of certain prescription drugs have spread.

Case studies on the current state of hearing health in China show that more than 10 million adults in China suffer from hearing loss, and it is estimated that only 1% of those with hearing loss use hearing aids (16% in Europe and 25% in the United States). Research in the United States shows that 12.5% ​​of children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 19 have permanent hearing loss due to excessive noise. Research in urban areas in China has shown similar results.

Hearing aids are mainly divided into Behind The Ear (BTE) and In the Ear (ITE), which are suitable for patients of different ages and different needs. The former has traditional BTE, micro-BTE and receiver in the ear canal (Receiver In Canal, RIC); while the latter has full, 3/4, and semi-aural ITE with built-in ear canal and deep ear canal (Completely In the Canal, CIC) And invisible in the ear canal (Invisible In Canal, IIC) and other types. There are three trends: one is discrete and “invisible”, the smaller ear canal built-in receiver (RIE) and the new invisible ear canal (IIC) type are more popular when the American “baby boomer” generation begins to adopt hearing aids; The second is wireless communication and connection: the current technology is 2.4 GHz, 900 MHz and Near Field Magnetic Induction (NFMI) with Bluetooth relay; the third is fully automated and “smart”, volume control and signal processing automatically adapt to the sound environment, so More effective and more convenient for users. To meet these trends, it is necessary to shift to 65 nm or smaller node process and miniaturized packaging technology; need interoperability and advanced packaging technology; increase processing power and algorithm complexity. The ensuing design challenge is that the current consumption when the power consumption is about 1 V and the working voltage, the multi-chip and the chip area are less than 10mm², Adopt mixed signal technology.

As you can see from Figure 3, the green part is a device provided by ON Semiconductor. Its system-in-package (SiP) simplifies the assembly process of miniature hearing aids and is suitable for all hearing aid types.

Figure 3: Hearing aid block diagram

ON Semiconductor provides pre-configured DSP systems for wireless hearing aid applications, including Ayre™ SA3291 hybrid module and AYRE relay reference design. These pre-configured DSP systems provide a variety of hybrid options and feature packages, supporting all types of hearing aid products, and are very suitable for hearing aid manufacturers that require very few programming configurations and can be applied upon request.

Among them, ON Semiconductor’s Ayre SA3291 hybrid module uses a full-featured hearing aid algorithm suite, pre-configured hearing processor and NFMI high-bandwidth integrated duplex radio. The antenna is the only required external component and can synchronize left and right ear parameters. . The Ayre relay reference design of ON Semiconductor supports stereo audio streaming, Bluetooth, volume control and program selection.

ON Semiconductor’s hearing aid digital signal processing software has several obvious features, such as wide dynamic range compression, which can softly amplify the sound without making the increased sound uncomfortable, and can provide personalized customization for individual hearing loss ; Feedback canceller can eliminate part of the hearing aid output signal generated by feedback, and adaptively eliminate it through phase cancellation; adaptive direction can automatically adapt to the polarity mode and adjust according to the noise position; use environmental classification to continuously analyze the sound environment and automatically adjust Hearing aids maximize comfort and audibility.

Figure 4: Schematic diagram of wireless hearing aid applications

To facilitate the design of engineers, ON Semiconductor also provides software development tools (online tools) to help select and configure algorithms, create custom hearing aids; model electroacoustic characteristics, test algorithms, and fine-tune. If customers develop fitting software, they can provide interface communication library files; if customers do not have fitting software, they can provide customized fitting software. Hardware development tools include DSP programmers and development boards.

In addition to pre-configured DSP solutions, ON Semiconductor also provides Ezairo® 5900 series open programmable DSP systems for hearing aid applications. This DSP system provides highly customizable mixed function configuration options, which is very suitable for hearing aid manufacturers who develop their own innovative algorithms or apply fully customized algorithms provided by third-party suppliers.

in conclusion

In order to meet the needs of family health care and people’s increased interest in health and health care equipment, ON Semiconductor provides a variety of semiconductor solutions for medical applications in the Chinese market, including high-performance, high-precision, high-precision, The highly reliable Q32M210 32-bit mixed-signal microcontroller, pre-configured DSP and publicly programmable DSP system for hearing aids, helps Chinese medical electronics manufacturers develop innovative high-precision, reliable, and low-energy medical equipment. At the same time, ON Semiconductor also provides supporting software and hardware development tools to assist customers in achieving secondary development beyond chip products, and an application engineer team provides on-site support for customers to help them shorten the design cycle and accelerate product launch.