IEEE Sponsored 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Information Embedded and Communication Systems

ICIIECS15

Design of Operational Amplifier, Analog to Digital

Converter for the Measurement of Bone Strain Using
CMOS Technology
M. Siva sankari, K. Rathinakumar, R. Nithya,
PG Scholar, Electronics and Assistant Professor, Electronics and Assistant Professor, Electronics and
Communication Engineering, Communication Engineering, Communication Engineering,
Knowledge Institute of Technology, Knowledge Institute of Technology, Knowledge Institute of Technology,
Salem, Tamil Nadu, Salem, Tamil Nadu, Salem, Tamil Nadu,
sivasankarivlsi@gmail.com. krkece@kiot.ac.in. rnece@kiot.ac.in.

Abstract Measurement of bone strain is the key factor
in the bone biology studies to understand the changes in the
structure of bone mass. This will be helpful in the improvement
of treatment process for the patients suffered due to bone
diseases. The system for the design of bone strain requires the
components which include sensors, amplifiers, analog to digital
converters (ADC), filter and the processing unit. Whenever the
bone is loaded, it creates a small adjustment in the bone mass.
The measurement of bone strain system requires more accuracy
because of this very minimum variation in the structure of bone
mass. Strain gauge sensors are used to sense the change in
interconnected plates of bone mass (strain). The strain is a
minimum value and in the range of micros, it desires to be
processed to get the original value of strain. The processing of the
signal is easier if it is a digital signal when compared to analog
signal. Hence the voltage signal from the sensor measuring the
strain is transmitted. Then the transmitted signal is amplified
through operational amplifier and the analog signal is converted
to digital using the comparator circuit. These operational
amplifier and comparator circuit are designed using
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology
to reduce the power consumption and simulated with the help of
Mentor graphics. The system takes long time to measure the
strain so that the system power consumption should be low. Thus
the analysis of strain is useful in the treatment of orthopedic
diseases.
Index terms: Measurement of bone strain, Analog to
Digital Converter, Operational amplifier, CMOS, Mentor graphics.
I. INTRODUCTION
Bones supports different functions of the body and is
composed form of minerals and proteins. The modeling and
remodeling are important processes of bone which contributes
to the structural changes. This structural property of bone
helps in maintaining the proper status of bone mass. The
structural change occurs due to any external force or
biological activities. The bone density mass should be high to
keep the bone healthier. The bone density varies among the
people due to heredity, age, work load, smoking, drugs,
alcohol, medications, inactivity of bone etc. The low bone
mass is the condition results in osteopenia or osteoporosis.
Women get affected more because of orthopedic diseases
when compared to men due to the menopausal stages. So
proper understanding of mechanism of bone requires applying
advancement in the orthopedic treatments. The sensors are
used to obtain the voltage signal as a result of change in bone
structural mass. The system design should be small to make it
comfortable for the implanted applications [1]. The bone strain
measurement is not directly obtained from the human bones
for research purpose directly due to its long time analysis to
obtain the expected result. Thus phantom tissue or scaffolds
are used in the place of human bones in which scaffolds are
composed of chemical materials like bioceramics and
biopolymers [2].
Mechanical unloading and biological reasons are two
major factors for low bone loss due to lack of maintenance of
minerals in the bone. In this comparative analysis, the
mechanical unloading creates high bone loss when compared
to biological factors. The important parameters affecting bone
mechanism includes frequency of bone multicellular units,
threshold and activation, refilling rate and strain [3]. Most of
the adults suffered due to the weakening of bone. The
continuous loss is increased among some of these patients so
they should be monitored regularly. To avoid the affection of
their regular activities, clothing sensor system is attached to
the knee and measure the knee motion of the orthopedic
patients outside the laboratory habitually by the clinician even
in their absence. The usage of bulkier instruments like inertia
measurement units and electro goniometers are avoided and
replaced with the attached clothing sensors to measure strain.
Sensors sense the changes in the bone due to the movement
and measured the change as a strain and basically it is
composed of element like carbon nano material [4].

978-1-4799-6818-3/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

 IEEE Sponsored 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Information Embedded and Communication Systems
ICIIECS15
The high speed applications are widespread and in
this case, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) based sensor networks
are used to measure the strain. The Fiber Bragg Grating sensor
is recommended for its reliability, reduced crosstalk and
increased speed. The application areas of FBG are strain
measurement in the field of turbine blades, measurement of
rails, health monitoring etc. [5]. Microbend sensors are
biosensors also play an important role in the strain
measurement. Microbend sensors are very sensitive to strain
and it measures the minimum change [8]. In MRI scan,
patients cardiac and respiratory activities are scanned. During
the MRI scan to measure the bone strain FBG sensor is used
because it is a safe and non-invasive method of strain
measurement. By using the FBG sensor, the sensing does not
affect the quality of the image extracted by the MRI scan [6].
Magnetic sensor is also used to measure the system with a
small unit designed and attached to the bone to measure the
strain on the moving subject. The system is designed to collect
and send information about the moving subject [7].
In the wireless communication, the bio-implantable
metamaterial sensors are also used in the strain measurement.
The RF micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) strain
sensor is fabricated by incorporating the multi split ring
resonators [9]. The normalized cross correlation computation
using graphics processing unit requires less computation time
to estimate the deformation of bone when compared to 2-
dimensional normalized cross correlation based algorithm
[10]. The strain may occurred due to various reasons like
force, pressure, acceleration and sound is measured with the
help of Micro scale strain gauges in Micro Electro-Mechanical
Systems (MEMS) [11]. The Analog to Digital Converter
(ADC) designed with 0.18m CMOS (Complementary Metal
Oxide Semiconductor) technology in Mentor graphics. In this
design the ADC uses the power supply of 1.8V. The
architecture varies due to which the consumption of power is
reduced further when compared with the implementation of
FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) [12].
The measurement of strain initiates with small
animal, the animal is immobilized and is continuously applied
with load. The data acquisition system is employed to collect
various ranges of data corresponding to the applied load and
the data is collected through wired communication [14]. In the
later stages the animal is kept in moving condition helps to
measure the strain for longer period. The movement of animal
is made possible through wireless transmission. The setup to
measure the strain is attached to the animal and the data
contains the strain levels are send to the base station through
wireless transmission for further analysis [13]. The database
should contain the details of all the different people with
varied capabilities and their ability to retrieve their original
position after subjected to any load. The system should be
designed with the available components of Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) in order to reduce the cost,
size, design time and manufacturing time. In wide range of
applications FPGA is employed for their low power and high
speed performance. The design of operational amplifier and
comparator with CMOS technology reduces the power
consumption further [15], [16].
III. METHODOLOGY
Once the patient is suffered with low bone mass, the
tolerating range of the load should be measured. The bone
mass density is the measuring factor of the bone and to
suggesting its strength. In order to determine the tolerating
range, the strain of the bone or the changes in the
interconnected plates of bone mass is continuously monitored
with the measuring unit. This ends in indicating the tolerance
range of patient if they near to cross that limit. Sensors are
used to measure strain occurs due to acceleration, sound, force
or sound. Here strain gauge sensor is used to measure the
strain as a change in the mass of bone. The single sensor cant
measure the bone strain at the particular place therefore six
sensors are used to measure the strain of bone. The sensors are
attached to the bone and used as an implanted application. All
the six sensors sense the minute change in the interconnected
mass of bone and transmitted wirelessly with the help of
transmitters. This arrangement of sensor around the bone
helps in gathering the entire information of strain around the
bone.
Fig.1 Block diagram for bone strain measurement
 IEEE Sponsored 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Information Embedded and Communication Systems
ICIIECS15

The continuous monitoring of bone strain requires

battery to provide power supply for the non-breaking
operation. The battery is attached to sensor unit. The sensor
observes the signal as a change in resistance and produces the
voltage signal. The analog signal produced by the voltage
difference across the terminals of bone. The sensed value is
very small so it is penetrated into the processing unit to
enhance the output. Each sensor output is processed separately
and finally each separate output is acquired. This is for the
purpose of retrieving the original information without any
loss. The block diagram for the bone strain measurement
system is shown in figure 1.

B. Operational Amplifier

The operational amplifier is used to boost up the

information signal without altering the data. The op-amps are
the basic elements in most of the analogue circuitry. The op- Fig.3 Design of two stage operational amplifier
amps are used in wide variety of applications include filtering,
conditioning of signal and the mathematical operations. The The simulation result for the operational amplifier is
op-amps are high gain differential amplifier. It has the shown in figure 4. With the input signal value of 2.5v, the
feedback networks to control its responses and characteristics. operational amplifier produces 3.75v is shown below.
The op-amps have certain specific characteristics include high
gain, high bandwidth, high CMRR (Common Mode Rejection
Ratio), high input impedance, low output impedance and low
offset value. It is a linear integrated circuit. The gain and
bandwidth is high when compared to BJT (Bipolar Junction
Transistor) and FET (Field Effect Transistor). It can perform
mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, integration
and differentiation in linear, non-linear and frequency
dependent circuits. It is type of differential amplifier and
forms as a basic building block in the analog circuits. The
operational amplifier is designed with the help of
complementary MOSFETS. It is a three terminal device with
inverting input, non-inverting input and the output terminal.
The symbol for operational amplifier is shown in figure 2.

Fig.4 Simulation result for operational amplifier

B. Analog to Digital Converter

Analog to Digital Converter is useful in converting

Fig.2 Symbol for operational amplifier
Mainly the operational amplifier is used to amplify
the signal and to obtain the oringinal information without any
damage. The schematic diagram for the operational amplifier
is shown in figure 3.
the analog signal to digital value. The analog signal is a
continuous signal which is continuous in both amplitude and
time. This analog signal is allowed to a sample and hold
circuit to discretize the signal, which is discrete in amplitude
and continuous in time. The digital signal is discrete in both
amplitude and time which is obtained after sampling and
quantization. The analog signal is discretized at regular
intervals by sampling and quantization to get the digital value.
According to the strain level, the sensor produces the output
 IEEE Sponsored 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Information Embedded and Communication Systems
ICIIECS15
and is given as input to the ADC. The flow of this conversion
is shown in figure 5. The input to an Analog to digital
converter is a voltage signal. Microcontrollers are able
detecting the binary signal from the voltage signal. They are
processing the digital value and to interface the analog devices
surrounding them, Analog to digital converter is significant to
present inside the microcontrollers. The ADC symbol is
shown in figure 6.
The analog to digital conversion is realized using the
comparator circuit and is defined as the comparison between
two voltages. The comparator has three terminals with voltage
input, reference voltage and output voltage. Sustaining
particular voltage as reference and according to the input
voltage, the output voltage is either a logic 0 or logic 1. If for the non-inverting comparator is shown in figure 8. This
the reference voltage is greater than the input voltage, then the
differential voltage output is positive. If the reference voltage
is less than the input voltage, then the differential voltage
output is negative.
Fig.5 Flow diagram of Analog to Digital Converter
Fig.6 Symbol for Analog to Digital Converter
The types of comparator includes positive or non-
inverting comparator and negative or inverting comparator.
The symbol for comparator is shown in figure 7. In inverting
comparator, the input voltage is applied at the inverting
terminal and the reference voltage is zero at the non-inverting
terminal. If the input voltage is greater than zero, then the
output voltage is logic 0. If the input voltage is less than
zero, then the output voltage is logic 1. The waveform for
the inverting comparator is shown in figure 8. In non-
inverting comparator, the input voltage is applied at the non-
inverting terminal and the reference voltage is zero at the
inverting terminal. If the input voltage is greater than zero,
then the output voltage is logic 1. If the input voltage is less
than zero, then the output voltage is logic 0. The waveform
comparison between the voltage signals converts the analog
value to digital value.
Fig.7 Symbol for comparator
Fig.8 Waveform of inverting and non-inverting comparator
B. Processing Unit
Each sensor output is amplified to obtain the original
signal and the voltage signal is converted to digital form
through separate channels. The single sensor output is
obtained to identify the strain at the particular location. The
system output is the digital data and from the multiplexed
 IEEE Sponsored 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Information Embedded and Communication Systems
ICIIECS15
data, single data is selected through the processing unit. The
strain value at the output of the patient is compared with the
database to verify the status of the bone. The result of the
comparative analysis is helps in physiotherapeutic treatment to
improve the patient bone health.
C. Synthesis Report
This report is obtained from the simulation result of
Xilinx. The power analysis report provides the power
consumption for the strain measurement unit. The unit for the
strain measurement combines with operational amplifier,
analog to digital converter and processing unit consumes
power in the range of milli watts. These form the basic
building blocks of the measurement unit.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The system for the measurement is designed
with the operational amplifier and analog to digital converter
(ADC) circuits and simulated using Mentor graphics. The
structural change in the bone mass due to loading or unloading
is not completely understood. The structural change is a
minimum value which is sensed using the strain gauge
sensors. The sensed value from the sensor is transmitted
wirelessly and processing the voltage signal to retrieve the
original signal. The knowledge about the structural mass of
bone is essential in the bone biology studies and also in the
treatment of orthopedics. The basic components of the system
are designed using CMOS technology with reduced power
consumption. The measurement of strain is helpful in the
diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic patients. In future, the
comparator logic, processing unit will be designed using the
CMOS technology and merged to form the complete system
for the measurement of strain. The complete circuit layout will
be generated with the help of Mentor graphics and
implemented as the hardware for the patient bone strain
measurement.
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