Creating a custom sensor board can be complex, as designers must first build custom hardware and firmware to validate their concepts and then build prototypes before initiating any field testing. From there, they typically spend a significant amount of time evaluating existing sensors and solutions. Maxim's hSensor platform eliminates the extra 3-6 months normally required to develop a prototype by bringing all the hardware building blocks together on a single PCB and providing easily accessible hardware functionality with the ARM mbed Hardware Development Kit (HDK).
The hSensor platform, offered as the MAXREFDES100# reference design, includes an hSensor board, complete firmware with drivers, a debug board, and a graphical user interface (GUI). With access to the firmware source code on the Maxim website, the platform allows designers to upload algorithms for different use cases and tailor them to their specific applications. Customers can download the firmware to optimize designs, enable faster evaluations, and significantly reduce time to market. The hSensor platform is the only complete development platform available today and is ideal for high-end health, wellness, and fitness applications such as chest straps, ECG patches, wristband devices, thermometers, disposable temperature patches, smart scales, and bioauthentication. For example, a wearable patch can be designed to continuously record ECG on a single CR2032 battery for twice as long as existing solutions—a power saving of over 50%.
The hSensor platform includes the following products:
• MAX30003: Ultra-low power single-channel integrated biopotential AFE
• MAX30101: High sensitivity pulse oximeter and heart rate sensor
• MAX30205: The industry's only clinical-grade temperature sensor
• MAX32620: Ultra-low power ARM® Cortex®-M4F microcontroller optimized for wearables
• MAX14720: The industry's lowest current power management integrated circuit (PMIC)
• Additional content: Inertial sensors (3-axis accelerometer, 6-axis accelerometer/gyroscope), barometric pressure sensor, flash memory, and BLE radio.
