Mohiuddin Ahmed

BioE 431
Lab Report 5
LAB SECTION: MONDAY’S 11-1:50PM
MARCH 31, 2017
Partner: ALEX LU
Lab 5: Biopotentials; Amplifiers and the ECG
Abstract:

The main purpose of this lab was to combine multiple op-amps into a working

device that measures a given biopotential. Specifically, this lab was originally intended

to utilize a differential amplifier fed into a bandpass filter which then was then supposed

to be connected to an inverting amplifier to yield a gain necessary to measure the

relatively biopotentials of ECG and EMG. However, in this lab, the inverting portion of

the circuit caused a decrease in gain utilizing many different resistor values. The gain

out of the bandpass filter was sufficient for use in this lab and therefore the inverting

amplifier portion was ignored. A final concept explored in this lab was the idea of color

coding the wiring of the breadboard. This was simply a lesson in proper circuit-building

etiquette.

Introduction:

Biopotentials are potentials within living matter. By nature, electric potentials

within the human body tend to be relatively small. However, these electric potentials

offer information as to how the human body operates and responds to input and

change. Therefore, there is an obvious need to collect data on these potentials to study

the human body. To study these biopotentials, electrodes are used as a medium to pick

up the signals produced by the human body and deliver them to a device. Differential
op-amps measure the potential difference between two inputs making it easy to amplify

small differences between two large or small, but similar in magnitude signals without

saturating a circuit. This is an ideal introductory component to a device measuring

biopotentials because of the small potentials within the human body. A differential

amplifier produces differential gain when the two inputs are different voltages and

produces a common mode gain (rather than no gain) when the input voltages are the

same because an ideal op-amp is not feasible. If there is low common mode gain, then

the op-amp is a quality differential amplifier. A bandpass filter is used within this lab

because it passes frequencies within a specified range. Here, the frequencies allowed

to pass correspond to typical (desired) frequencies seen in human ECG’s: 0.2 to 150

Hz.

The slew rate measures how fast a device/circuit responds to fluctuations in

amplitude from the input. This is relevant because by nature ECG and EMG amplitudes

change frequently unlike other potentials. An ECG is a measurement of the heart’s

electric activity as its valves open and close and component of the heart pump to

distribute blood throughout the human body. Different portions of the ECG characterize

different portions of the heart’s routine blood pumping cycle and this is commonly

known as the PQRST waveform. On the other hand, EMG is a measurement of electric

activity within skeletal muscles. Here, the amplitude of the output changes depending

on the state of muscle. This is most apparent when comparing a muscle in relaxation

versus full contraction, but changes in EMG can be seen throughout the entire

contraction-relaxation cycle of the muscle.

Procedure:

• Construct a Differential Amplifier from Figure 2 of the Lab Manual.

• Ensure to color code wires so that the circuit is neat and easy to follow.

• Construct the band pass filter from Figure 3 of the Lab Manual using the

capacitor values calculated: C1= 3.2 microFarad and C2= 11 nanoFarad.

• Assuming it does not drastically reduce the gain, construct the inverting amplifier

portion from Figure 4 of the Lab Manual:

• The value of Rf is derived from a typical desired gain of 500 for circuits such as

these.

• Input a 50 Hz sine wave into both inputs of the differential amplifier and adjust

the potentiometer to minimize the common mode output.

• Apply a common mode signal of 0.5 Vpp with a 50 Hz sine wave to both inputs of

the differential amplifier and measure the common mode gain (differential

amplifier section only).

• Apply a 0.1 Vpp signal to one input of 50Hz while the other input is ground and

measure the differential gain (differential amplifier section only).

• Calculate the Common Mode Rejection Ratio for the differential amplifier section.

• Create a table of frequency, Vi1, Vo, and gain for the differential and bandpass

stage only. Create a gain vs frequency plot. Indicate where the cutoff frequency

is on the plot.
• Calculate the slew rate after applying a 0.1 Vpp 20 Hz square wave to the

differential and bandpass section. Capture an image of both the input and output

of slew rate measurements.

• Connect both inputs to ground and measure the output voltage; based on this

information, estimate the frequency content.

• Create a LabVIEW VI that includes a waveform chart, write data to file, and a

sampling rate based on the desired bandwidth.

• Attach the ECG circuit via electrodes to a human after cleaning the skin of the

recipient. Follow the schematic from Figure 6:

• Use the LabVIEW VI to record 5 to 10 seconds of an ECG signal from the human

subject. Plot the output. Label the PQRST components if possible.

• Attach the electrodes to the clean skin of a human bicep muscle and record 5 to

10 seconds of EMG signal as the human subject contracts and relaxes their

bicep. Plot the output and label where contraction and relaxation occurred if

possible.
Results:

Q1)
[REDACTED]
Q2)

[REDACTED]

Q3)

[REDACTED]
Note: Green is ground. Yellow and Red are positive and negative power supplies for the

op-amps. The lower corner of the circuit is the unused inverting amplifier portion of the

circuit.

Q4) [REDACTED]

Q5) [REDACTED]

Q6) [REDACTED]

Q7)

Using 100 mVpp input voltage

 Frequency Vi_1 (mV) Diff Vo (V) Band Vo (V) Differential Bandpass

(Hz) Gain (dB) Gain (dB)

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

Based on our data, the cutoff frequencies of the bandpass filter appear to be 1 Hz
(lower cutoff) and 100 Hz (higher cutoff)
Q8) [REDACTED]
Input:
Output:
Q9) [REDACTED]

Q10)

Note: R is the only safely identifiable portion of the PQRST waveform among the noise.

Q11)
Discussion:

Ultimately, this lab utilized—in our case exclusively—a differential amplifier and a

bandpass filter to create a circuit that can function as an ECG, EMG, and other

biopotential measuring devices. Our circuit did not use an inverting amplifier because

the amplifier lowered the gain due to some unforeseen error; enough gain was available

from the bandpass section that the lab could be conducted without the inverting

amplifier portion. This lab also introduced the concept of proper etiquette in breadboard

circuit building by requiring color coding of wires in a minimalist fashion.

With a gain of roughly 26 available from the bandpass filter section of the circuit

and after adjusting the potentiometer to minimize common mode gain from the

differential amplifier, the circuit could use electrodes as inputs to measure and

appropriately amplify biopotentials. In this case, ECG and EMG were the biopotentials

chosen of a human adult male. The ECG data was noisy, with only the “R” portion of the

PQRST waveform easily discernible meanwhile the EMG data revealed easily visible

differences between bicep contraction and relaxation. Regarding the circuit to make

these measurements, the bandpass filter required capacitors where C1= 3.2

microFarads and C2 = 11 nanoFarads. If the inverting amplifier was to be used, the

value of Rf would have been around 227 kOhms because the gain from the bandpass

filter section was 22 and the overall desired gain was around 500. However, this proved

to be more trouble than it was worth.