Design, development and testing of an EKG emulator

Abstract

This article presents the design, development, and testing of a low-cost ECG simulator that can be used successfully in higher education institutions and other institutions dealing with medical equipment checking medical equipment. The practical realization of an EKG simulator combines both medical notions and notions of electronics, specific to the field of medical engineering. In this article, in the first part notions related to the anatomy of the cardiac system will be detailed, with the help of these notions you will better understand how an electrocardiograph (ECG) works, which reads the electrical impulses of the heart transformed into waveforms. The second part of the paper is the practical part of this project, the design of the electrical circuit, the simulation, and the practical realization (soldering the electronic components on a PCB and final assembly of all ECG components by integrating them into a specific housing). The last phase is dedicated to testing the device on a vital function monitor that belongs to a Cardiolifedefibrillator. This simulator can perform 2 phases, a 60 bpm signal and a 120 bpm signal, having a button attached to the housing to change the signal, the difference of the signal is signaled by a green LED that is also on the surface plastic housing. The EKG simulator is mainly a signal generator, which mimics the signal generated by the human body.