Samsung has announced Bio-Processor, its latest all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market. The company says that this is the industry’s first all-in-one health solution chip. It has integrated Analog Front Ends (AFE), microcontroller unit (MCU), power management integrated circuit (PMIC), digital signal processor (DSP), and eFlash memory to process the bio-signals it measures without the need of external processing parts.
Samsung said that the innovative integrated design makes the Bio-Processor incredibly small in size, which is one fourth of the total combined size of the total area of the discrete parts, which is ideal for small wearable devices.
It has five AFEs including bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR) in a single chip solution that measures body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress level, respectively.
The new Samsung Bio-Processor is currently in mass production and is expected to be seen in fitness/health devices by the first half of 2016.
Commenting on the new Bio-Processor, Ben K. Hur, Vice President of marketing, System LSI business at Samsung Electronics, said:
With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal bio-data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health. Samsung’s Bio-Processor, which can process five different biometric signals, is the most versatile health and fitness monitoring chip available on the market today and is expected to open up many new health-based service options for our customers.