Imec and spin-off present ECG chip for pregnancy monitoring at home

Imec has revealed a new prototype of a wearable 5-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) chip. The Leuven-based technology and innovation hub developed this first-of-its-kind ECG solution, known as BeatleIC, together with its spin-off, Bloomlife (link in Dutch), located in San Francisco and Genk, Belgium. The chip was purposefully built to monitor unborn babies.

The new system comes to market as an avenue for at-home monitoring and can effectively produce fetal ECGs as early as 20 weeks into pregnancy. While most wearable solutions are limited, tracking only the mother’s well-being, this innovation is specifically for the continuous and real-time reporting of fetal heartrates and mobility, two important indicators in a baby’s health.

Building upon Imec’s integrated circuit expertise, the BeatleIC allows for the simultaneous recording of all perinatal health-related signals. It also boasts a low power consumption, enabling long-term use – featuring a battery life of about one week on a coin cell. Furthermore, the wearable system allows for highly accurate fetal ECG data acquisition, at very low amplitude levels between 3 and 15 µV, peak to peak.