Date: 30/09/2009

ADI Blackfin DSP to power UTAS patient monitoring systems

Medical electronics company UTAS has selected Analog Devices Blackfin processors for its range of patient monitoring products including the most recent product UM 300 portable patient monitor.

"Medical professionals depend on UTAS' equipment to get a clear view of patient data, which enables them to make timely, more informed patient care decisions," said Valeriy Tkachenko, Technical Director, UTAS Company. "With Blackfin at the heart of our patient monitoring and diagnostics systems, we are assured a powerful, flexible processor platform for our system designs, and our users are assured unmatched digital signal processing performance for precise measurement of patients' vital signs."

UTAS makes electrocardiographs, patient monitors, and pulse oximeters and are widely used all over the world.

The UM 300 patient monitor employs dual-core Blackfin BF561 for centralized digital signal processing - real-time digital filtering, preprocessing and finish processing - as well as to control the system's measurement virtualization capabilities and its video interface, which enables simultaneous viewing of up to eight real-time waveforms via a high-resolution color display. Blackfin BF561 is a symmetric multiprocessing configuration of two Blackfin cores, each of which is capable of operating at up to 600 MHz/1200 MMACS with 2.6 Mb of on-chip SRAM memory.

UM 300 also use other ADI devices such as AD8605 single-supply operational amplifiers, AD8220 junction field effect transistor (JFET) input instrument amplifiers, an ADP3335 precision voltage regulator, and an ADuM2401 iCoupler quad-channel digital isolator.

"Medical equipment developers employ some of the most stringent standards in the electronics industry when selecting the components that will underpin their systems," said Colin Duggan, product line director, GPDSP division, Analog Devices. "UTAS' new UM 300 patient monitor is just the latest example of how Analog Devices is delivering high performance, feature-rich signal processing technology to enable advanced medical systems designs."