Noise Analysis for Performance Evaluation of Biopotential Recording Front-Ends

Abstract

Noise efficiency factor (NEF) and power efficiency factor (PEF) are widely used as the figure of merit to quantify the performance of biopotential recording front-ends. NEF and PEF are discussed from the noise analysis to the trend survey. To provide a comprehensive performance comparison of the front-ends, the performance mapping is developed using the design parameters of the technology node, NEF, PEF, |PEF - NEF|, and supply voltage. Using |PEF - NEF| provides how well a front-end balances between current-noise efficiency and power-noise efficiency, in other words, how biased a front-end is between current- and power-noise efficiencies. Also, the performance mappings of different front-end architectures are presented.