Many people die every day due to lack of access to basic medical measurements, such as blood pressure, and corresponding diagnoses. In order to combat this, a medical diagnostic platform is being designed which will use low-cost sensors and utilize the proliferation of mobile phones in emerging regions for computational power.
Broadly speaking, the Mobile Phones as a Medical Diagnostic Platform project can be divided into an electronics phase and a software phase. The electronics phase involves selecting a suitable pressure sensor, amplifying its output, and modulating the signal for transmission to the phone. The software phase involves demodulating the signal, calculating the blood pressure, creating a GUI for the phone targeted for the regions in which it will be deployed, and creating a database with basic diagnostic information correlated to the blood pressure calculated.
A chief design difficulty in this project has been the implementation of amplitude modulation (necessary to transmit DC information to the mobile phone) on the 3.2V provided by the phone battery. An analysis of the standard modulation IC, ON Semiconductor’s MC1496 balanced modulator, is presented, along with modifications and design decisions that demonstrate optimized operation for low-power, DC input, and minimal harmonics.
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