Nick Van Helleputte

Dr. Nick Van Helleputte

Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Center at Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

19Years (2008-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
10 January 2019 in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
Dwaipayan BiswasDwaipayan Biswas
Dwaipayan Biswas
LELuke Everson
Luke Everson
MLMuqing Liu
Muqing Liu
MPMadhuri Panwar
Madhuri Panwar
BVBram-Ernst Verhoef
Bram-Ernst Verhoef
NHNick Van Helleputte
Nick Van Helleputte
Advancements in wireless sensor network technologies have enabled the proliferation of miniaturized body-worn sensors, capable of long-term pervasive biomedical signal monitoring. Remote cardiovascular monitoring has been one of the beneficiaries of this development, resulting in non-invasive, photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors being used in ambulatory settings. Wrist-worn PPG, although a popular alternative to electrocardiogram, suffers from motion artifacts inherent in daily life. Hence, in this paper, we present a novel deep learning framework (CorNET) to efficiently estimate heart rate (HR) information and perform biometric identification (BId) using only a wrist-worn, single-channel PPG signal collected in ambulant environment. We have formulated a completely personalized data-driven approach, using a four-layer deep neural network. Two convolution neural network layers are used in conjunction with two long short-term memory layers, followed by a dense output layer for modeling the temporal sequence inherent within the pulsatile signal representative of cardiac activity. The final dense layer is customized with respect to the application, functioning as: regression layer-having a single neuron to predict HR; classification layer-two neurons that identify a subject among a group. The proposed network was evaluated on the TROIKA dataset having 22 PPG records collected during various physical activities. We achieve a mean absolute error of 1.47 ± 3.37 beats per minute for HR estimation and an average accuracy of 96% for BId on 20 subjects. CorNET was further evaluated successfully in an ambulant use-case scenario with custom sensors for two subjects.

1 May 2019 in IEEE Sensors Journal
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
Dwaipayan BiswasDwaipayan Biswas
Dwaipayan Biswas
NSNeide Simoes-Capela
Neide Simoes-Capela
CHChris Van Hoof
Chris Van Hoof
NHNick Van Helleputte
Nick Van Helleputte
Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a low-cost, non-invasive, optical technique used to detect blood volume changes in the microvascular tissue bed, measured from the skin surface. It has traditionally been used in commercial medical devices for oxygen saturation, blood pressure monitoring and cardiac activity for assessing peripheral vascular disease and autonomic function. There has been a growing interest to incorporate PPG sensors in daily life, capable of use in ambulatory settings. However, inferring cardiac information (e.g. heart rate) from PPG traces in such situations is extremely challenging, because of interferences caused by motion. Following the IEEE Signal Processing Cup in 2015, numerous methods have been proposed for estimating particularly the average heart rate using wrist-worn PPG during physical activity. Details on PPG technology, sensor development and applications have been well documented in literature. Hence, in this paper, we have presented a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art research on heart rate estimation from wrist-worn photoplethysmography (PPG) signals. Our review also encompasses brief theoretical details about PPG sensing and other potential applications – biometric identification, disease diagnosis using wrist PPG. This article will set a platform for future research on pervasive monitoring using wrist PP.G.

14 October 2014 in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
NHNick Van Helleputte
Nick Van Helleputte
MKMario Konijnenburg
Mario Konijnenburg
JPJulia Pettine
Julia Pettine
DJDong-Woo Jee
Dong-Woo Jee
HKHyejung Kim
Hyejung Kim
RYRefet Firat Yazicioglu
Refet Firat Yazicioglu
This paper presents a MUlti-SEnsor biomedical IC (MUSEIC). It features a high-performance, low-power analog front-end (AFE) and fully integrated DSP. The AFE has three biopotential readouts, one bio-impedance readout, and support for general-purpose analog sensors The biopotential readout channels can handle large differential electrode offsets ( ±400 mV), achieve high input impedance ( >500 M Ω), low noise ( 620 nVrms in 150 Hz), and large CMRR ( >110 dB) without relying on trimming while consuming only 31 μW/channel. In addition, fully integrated real-time motion artifact reduction, based on simultaneous electrode-tissue impedance measurement, with feedback to the analog domain is supported. The bio-impedance readout with pseudo-sine current generator achieves a resolution of 9.8 m Ω/ √Hz while consuming just 58 μW/channel. The DSP has a general purpose ARM Cortex M0 processor and an HW accelerator optimized for energy-efficient execution of various biomedical signal processing algorithms achieving 10 × or more energy savings in vector multiply-accumulate executions.

19 May 2017 in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
CLCarolina Mora Lopez
Carolina Mora Lopez
JPJan Putzeys
Jan Putzeys
BRBogdan Cristian Raducanu
Bogdan Cristian Raducanu
MBMarco Ballini
Marco Ballini
Shiwei WangShiwei Wang
Shiwei Wang
SMSrinjoy Mitra
Srinjoy Mitra
In vivo recording of neural action-potential and local-field-potential signals requires the use of high-resolution penetrating probes. Several international initiatives to better understand the brain are driving technology efforts towards maximizing the number of recording sites while minimizing the neural probe dimensions. We designed and fabricated (0.13-μm SOI Al CMOS) a 384-channel configurable neural probe for large-scale in vivo recording of neural signals. Up to 966 selectable active electrodes were integrated along an implantable shank (70 μm wide, 10 mm long, 20 μm thick), achieving a crosstalk of -64.4 dB. The probe base (5 × 9 mm 2 ) implements dual-band recording and a 171.6 Mbps digital interface. Measurement results show a total input-referred noise of 6.4 μV rms and a total power consumption of 49.1 μW/channel.

19 October 2017 in Sensors
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
BRBogdan C. Raducanu
Bogdan C. Raducanu
RYRefet F. Yazicioglu
Refet F. Yazicioglu
CLCarolina Mora Lopez
Carolina Mora Lopez
MBMarco Ballini
Marco Ballini
JPJan Putzeys
Jan Putzeys
SMSrinjoy Mitra
Srinjoy Mitra
We present a high electrode density and high channel count CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) active neural probe containing 1344 neuron sized recording pixels (20 µm × 20 µm) and 12 reference pixels (20 µm × 80 µm), densely packed on a 50 µm thick, 100 µm wide, and 8 mm long shank. The active electrodes or pixels consist of dedicated in-situ circuits for signal source amplification, which are directly located under each electrode. The probe supports the simultaneous recording of all 1356 electrodes with sufficient signal to noise ratio for typical neuroscience applications. For enhanced performance, further noise reduction can be achieved while using half of the electrodes (678). Both of these numbers considerably surpass the state-of-the art active neural probes in both electrode count and number of recording channels. The measured input referred noise in the action potential band is 12.4 µVrms, while using 678 electrodes, with just 3 µW power dissipation per pixel and 45 µW per read-out channel (including data transmission).

19 June 2013 in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
HKHyejung Kim
Hyejung Kim
SKSunyoung Kim
Sunyoung Kim
NHNick Van Helleputte
Nick Van Helleputte
AAAntonio Artes
Antonio Artes
MKMario Konijnenburg
Mario Konijnenburg
RYRefet Firat Yazicioglu
Refet Firat Yazicioglu
This paper describes a mixed-signal ECG System-on-Chip (SoC) that is capable of implementing configurable functionality with low-power consumption for portable ECG monitoring applications. A low-voltage and high performance analog front-end extracts 3-channel ECG signals and single channel electrode-tissue-impedance (ETI) measurement with high signal quality. This can be used to evaluate the quality of the ECG measurement and to filter motion artifacts. A custom digital signal processor consisting of 4-way SIMD processor provides the configurability and advanced functionality like motion artifact removal and R peak detection. A built-in 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is capable of adaptive sampling achieving a compression ratio of up to 7, and loop buffer integration reduces the power consumption for on-chip memory access. The SoC is implemented in 0.18 μm CMOS process and consumes 32 μW from a 1.2 V while heart beat detection application is running, and integrated in a wireless ECG monitoring system with Bluetooth protocol. Thanks to the ECG SoC, the overall system power consumption can be reduced significantly.