Electrical Impedance Tomography for Biomedical Applications: Circuits and Systems Review

• Published in: IEEE open journal of circuits and systems Vol. 2; pp. 380 - 397
• Main Authors: Wu, Yu, Hanzaee, Farnaz Fahimi, Jiang, Dai, Bayford, Richard H., Demosthenous, Andreas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Analog circuits; Analog front-end; bioimpedance; Biomedical materials; Circuit design; Circuits; current driver; Current measurement; Demodulation; Electrical impedance; electrical impedance tomography (EIT); Imaging; Impedance; Integrated circuits; Lung; Monitoring; Systems design; Tomography; Topology; Voltage measurement; wearable technologies
• ISSN: 2644-1225; 2644-1225
• DOI: 10.1109/OJCAS.2021.3075302

There has been considerable interest in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to provide low-cost, radiation-free, real-time and wearable means for physiological status monitoring. To be competitive with other well-established imaging modalities, it is important to understand the requirements of the specific application and determine a suitable system design. This paper presents an overview of EIT circuits and systems including architectures, current drivers, analog front-end and demodulation circuits, with emphasis on integrated circuit implementations. Commonly used circuit topologies are detailed, and tradeoffs are discussed to aid in choosing an appropriate design based on the application and system priorities. The paper also describes a number of integrated EIT systems for biomedical applications, as well as discussing current challenges and possible future directions.