Improving the performance of analog acquisition in low-power low-range microcontrollers.

Abstract

Low-power low-range microcontrollers provide the means to acquire analog signals. This work focuses on the development of a real-time embedded system that acquires and processes analog signals using the MSP430G2553 microcontroller, which could be valuable for the recording of biopotentials. We aim to push this system to its limits in terms of throughput, identifying the bottlenecks that restrict the maximum sample frequency. In short, our system is capable of acquiring, processing, and transmitting using UART communication eight analog channels at an effective throughput of 729 kbps. This throughput is achieved by improving the performance of each of the system's building blocks and implementing a simple yet effective data packing scheme. In addition, we propose another packing scheme that offers the means to detect the loss of information and synchronize the data acquisition while slightly reducing the effective throughput (625 kbps).