“PORTABLE DEFIBRILLATOR”
1 2
Harshal Mistry
harshalmistry0402@gmail.com
1, 2
Students of AVCOE, Sangamner.
Abstract
In this modern world we strive hard to achieve the
goals we set for ourselves. But in that journey we get
stressed out. The studies have shown that there is a
significant rise in the number of heart related issues
with the modern times.
The main call of the time is to provide out of
hospital facility to treat people who encounter such
heart related issues. This is a small step in providing
such a facility so that the fatalities due to cardiac
arrest can be brought down. Studies have shown that
patient who suffers from a fibrillation- arrhythmic
beating of heart, has larger chances of survival if the
process of normalizing the heartbeat begins in few
minutes of the cardiac arrest. De-Fibrillator portable
is a device which is very convenient to carry around
and use when there is any kind of emergency. The
simplicity of the device makes it usable by laymen.
There is no need of any trained person for the
operation.
The devices’ self-analytical functioning
assists to decide the amount of the electric shock
required for the patient and the time at which it is to
be delivered. this improves the chances of saving the
patient significantly.
1. Intoduction
A) What is Fibrillation?
Abnormality in the heart beats. Arrhythmic beating
of the heart is called Fibrillation.
Kanchan Gaur
kanchangaur1987@gmail.com
Fibrillation is a very serious type of arrhythmia.
Fibrillation occurs when the heart muscle has a
quivering motion rather than normal pumping action.
This condition could affect the upper (atrial) or lower
(ventricular) chambers of the heart. Ventricular
fibrillation of the heart can cause death in minutes,
however atrial fibrillation usually is not life
threatening and the result of an underlying medical
condition.
Here we will concentrate on the ventricular
fibrillation as it is more life threatening compared to
atrial fibrillation. There are mainly to kinds of
ventricular fibrillation
• Ventricular Fibrillation
• Ventricular Tachycardia
b) Ventricular fibrillation:
In ventricular fibrillation, the ventricles merely
quiver and do not contract in a coordinated way. No
blood is pumped from the heart, so ventricular
fibrillation is a form of cardiac arrest. It is fatal unless
treated immediately.
The most common cause of ventricular fibrillation is
inadequate blood flow to the heart muscle due to
coronary artery disease, as occurs during a heart
attack.

Figure 2.1: Waveforms for ventricular fibrillation
An ECG strip shows the presence of ventricular
fibrillation, which involves rapid contraction of the
ventricles. Ventricular fibrillation is indicated by an
erratic rhythm in which spikes and waves cannot be
identified. A normal ECG strip is shown at the
bottom for comparison.
• Ventricular fibrillation causes
unconsciousness in seconds, and if the
disorder is not rapidly treated, death follows.
• Electrocardiography (ECG) helps determine
the cause of cardiac arrest.
• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) must
be started within a few minutes, and it must
be followed by defibrillation (an electrical
shock delivered to the chest) to restore
normal heart rhythm.
C) Ventricular Tachycardia
Ventricular tachycardia may be thought of as a
sequence of consecutive ventricular premature beats.
Sometimes only a few such beats occur together, and
then the heart returns to a normal rhythm. Ventricular
tachycardia that lasts more than 30 seconds is called
sustained ventricular tachycardia. Sustained
ventricular tachycardia usually occurs in people with
a structural heart disorder that has damaged the
ventricles. Most commonly, it occurs weeks or
months after a heart attack. It is more common
among older people. However, rarely, ventricular
tachycardia develops in young people who do not
have a structural heart disorder.
• People almost always have palpitations.
• Electrocardiography (ECG) is used to make
the diagnosis.
• Drugs and procedures to destroy abnormal
areas of the ventricles are usually needed,
but usually an automatic defibrillator is
used.
Figure 2.2: Waveforms for ventricular tachycardia
An ECG strip shows the presence of ventricular
tachycardia, which is one type of a rapid heartbeat.
Ventricular tachycardia is indicated by a series of
repeating wide uncoordinated spikes. A normal ECG
strip is shown at the bottom for comparison.
d) Is there a solution?
Once the victim experiences the ventricular
fibrillation then the best way to treat the person is to
give a CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation). Even
then if the patient doesn’t recover then it is the time
to provide some sort of De-Fibrillation.
De-Fibrillation is the process of giving short
electrical shocks to the patients on and around their
heart in order to regularize the heart beating. Studies
have shown that a calculated amount of electrical
shock given to the patient at the time of fibrillation
can again regularize the beating of the heart.
E) What is De-Fibrillation?
De-Fibrillation is the process in which an electronic
device gives an electric shock to the heart. This helps
reestablish normal contraction rhythms in a heart
having dangerous arrhythmia or in cardiac arrest. In
recent years small portable defibrillators have
become available. These are called Automated
External De-Fibrillator (AED).

2. Main body of the paper

Photograph 2.1( Portable Difibrillator)
2.1 Manual External De-Fibrillator

The units are in conjunction with (or more often have

inbuilt) electrocardiogram readers, which the
healthcare providers use to diagnose a cardiac
condition (most often fibrillation or tachycardia
although there are some other rhythms which can be
treated by different shocks). The healthcare provider
will then decide what charge (in joules) to use, based
on proven guidelines and experience, and will deliver
the shock through paddles or pads on the patient’s
chest. as they require detailed medical knowledge,
these units are generally only found in the hospitals
and on some ambulances.
Photograph 2.2( Portable Difibrillator by Philips)

2.3 Block digram of Portable Difibrillator.

2.2Automated External De-Fibrillator (AED)

An automated external defibrillator or AED is a

portable electronic device that automatically
diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac
arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular
tachycardia in a patient, and is able to treat them
through defibrillation, the application of electrical
therapy which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the
heart to reestablish an effective rhythm.

AEDs are designed to be simple to use for the

layman, and the use of AEDs is taught in many first
aid, first responder and basic life support (BLS) level
CPR classes.

Figure 2.3: Block dig of defibrillator


Micro-controller
It is the brain of this system. The entire decision
making is done by the microcontroller. Let us see the
functions that are performed by the controller.
• Generate PWM output for the inverter so
that the voltage that comes from a battery can be
stepped up.
• It keeps check on the capacitor charge level
using feedback and an ADC and controls the
Capacitor Charging PWM accordingly.
• It also controls the output PWM which in
turn controls the energy that is released during an
electric shock. The functions above are for charging
and discharging the capacitor during the de-
fibrillation process. But it also has to check for the
appropriate time for discharging the charge so that
de-fibrillation occurs.
• Controller measures the peak of the wave
received from the patient using an ADC. The
duration of the wave is calculated using a timer. This
information helps to calculate the fibrillation time
and hence type.
• Depending on the type of fibrillation the
controller decides the time of de-fibrillation. The
controller controllers the selections of the channel
between capacitor charge feedback and R-wave.
High voltage capacitor charger
This module consists of three blocks. They all
combined performs the task of charging the capacitor
so that it can be discharged as and when required.
• Inverter
Basically, DC to AC inverter work by using control
circuit to generate electric pulse at high power
(typically at hundred to thousand watts) and then this
high power pulse is connected to step up transformer
to get high voltage, i.e. 220 volt. By using a timer,
the generated pulse can be formed in modified sine
wave by using pulse width modulation technique. In
this circuit, microcontroller will generate pulse that is
used for MOSFET IRFZ 44 driving. This MOSFET
is switched ON and OFF which in turn controls DC
current to low side. The high voltage is generated at
the other side that can turn on the lamp. To get a
higher power, we can add more MOSFETs in parallel
connection.
• AC to DC converter
This is simple full wave rectifier circuit, which will
generate DC voltage for capacitor charging.
• Charging controller
This DC voltage will not be going directly to
capacitor; MOSFET will be used in between.
Microcontroller will check capacitor voltage through
charger feedback and control MOSFET accordingly.
• Capacitor charger feedback
This circuit will step down the capacitor voltage to
very low voltage say 3V. Then it will be buffered
using Op-amp and given to ADC to check capacitor
charging level. Once the level has reached the
satisfactory level the controller will stop charging the
capacitor. The discharging of the capacitor doesn’t
take place until the capacitor charge level reaches the
appropriate value even if the discharge switch is
pressed.
• High voltage capacitor discharge
Capacitor discharge will be done through MOSFET.
If we are using PWM discharge method so we can
use transformer isolation between high voltage
capacitor circuit and our control circuit. Multiple
MOSFET can be used for different levels of energy,
in another words we can control discharge current.
This decision is taken by the micro-controller. And
thus the appropriate amount of charge is discharged
so that we get the best possible outcome.
 • R-point detector and timing measurement
ADC will be used to measure voltage level from
electrocardiogram simulator. Microcontroller will
check the spike voltage during R-wave. Period will
be measured using timer. According to this data the
decision will be made which type of fibrillation has
occurred.
• LCD screen
This screen gives the status of the de-fibrillator and
the messages for the person who is using it. This
makes it user friendly as it gives the instruction what
is to be done.
2.4 Mechanism of Operation
An AED is external because the operator applies the
electrode pads to the bare chest of the victim, as
opposed to internal defibrillators, which have
electrodes surgically implanted inside the body of a
patient.
Automatic refers to the unit's ability to autonomously
analyze the patient's condition and to assist this, the
vast majority of units have spoken prompts, and some
may also have visual displays to instruct the user.
When turned on or opened, the AED will instruct the
user to connect the electrodes (pads) to the patient.
Once the pads are attached, everyone should avoid
touching the patient so as to avoid false readings by
the unit. The pads allow the AED to examine the
electrical output from the heart and determine if the
patient is in a shock able rhythm (either ventricular
fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia). If the device
determines that a shock is warranted, it will use the
battery to charge its internal capacitor in preparation
to deliver the shock. This system is not only safer
(charging only when required), but also allows for a
faster delivery of the electrical current.
When charged, the device instructs the user to ensure
no one is touching the patient and then to press a
button to deliver the shock; human intervention is
usually required to deliver the shock to the patient in
order to avoid the possibility of accidental injury to
another person (which can result from a responder or
bystander touching the patient at the time of the
shock). Depending on the manufacturer and
particular model, after the shock is delivered most
devices will analyze the patient and either instruct
CPR to be given, or administer another shock.
Many AED units have an 'event memory' which store
the ECG of the patient along with details of the time
the unit was activated and the number and strength of
any shocks delivered. Some units also have voice
recording abilities to monitor the actions taken by the
personnel in order to ascertain if these had any
impact on the survival outcome. All this recorded
data can be either downloaded to a computer or
printed out so that the providing organization or
responsible body is able to see the effectiveness of
both CPR and defibrillation. Some AED units even
provide feedback on the quality of the compressions
provided by the rescuer.
The first commercially available AEDs were all of a
monophasic type, which gave a high-energy shock,
up to 360 to 400 joules depending on the model. This
caused increased cardiac injury and in some cases
second and third-degree burns around the shock pad
sites. Newer AEDs (manufactured after late 2003)
have tended to utilize biphasic algorithms which give
two sequential lower-energy shocks of 120 - 200
joules, with each shock moving in an opposite
polarity between the pads. This lower-energy
waveform has proven more effective in clinical tests,
as well as offering a reduced rate of complications
and reduced recovery time.
2.5. Analysis
A defibrillator analyzer is basically meant to
measure the energy content in the discharge pulse. It
works on the principle that the energy contained in a
pulse of arbitrary shape and time duration is given by
E=∫0T e (t) i (t) dt -------------------- (1)
Where E=energy in watt-secs
E (t) = voltage as a function of time,
I (t) = current as a function of time,
T=time duration of pulse
When the exists across a fixed resistance, the energy 1) For slower heart rate:
dissipated in the resistance is given by

E = 1/R∫0T [e(t)]2 dt --------------(2)

Where R is the resistance of the load

Second equation shows that defibrillator analyzer

circuit should consist of blocks shown in dig. The
defibrillating pulse is applied a standard 50Ω load
and the voltage developed across it is given to a
squaring ckt. The squaring consists of a four quadrant
multiplier followed by an operational amplifier. The
output of this device is a current which is
proportional to the product of two inputs. In the
squaring mode, the two inputs are connected together
so that the output is a square of input voltage. The
operational amplifier acts as a current to voltage
converter producing an output voltage which is
proportional to the output current, from the
Graph 2.1: waveforms for slower heartrate
multiplier.

2) For faster heart rate:

Figure2.4: Basic Block of Defibrillator energy meter

Meter

Besides these basic blocks the defibrillator analyzer

contains other ckts for controlling the measurement
operation. For ex, the pulse integrator ckt integrates
the squared function pulse during the time that a
pulse is present. During the reminder of display time,
it acts as an analog storage element. The voltage
stored in the pulse integrator is read on the energy
meter calibrated in watt-sec.
Graph 2.2:waveforms for faster heartrate
Besides determining the value of delivered energy
from a Lown or trapezoidal defibrillator, it is often
necessary to have a display of energy waveform. This
can be done by storing the waveform in digital Table No. 1: Result Table
memory and getting it out with a time expansion
through a digital to analog converter for convenient
recording on a standard ECG machine.
Cases Heart Energy Energy
rate ( volts) (joules)
(per min)
Input wave forms to defibrillator unit 1.Normal 65 -
 1.Bradycardia 33 3 We have just seen a device that will help treat a
2.Tachycardia 100 6 patient who has just suffered from ventricular
3.Atrial 118 11 fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia within few
fibrillation minutes of the mishap. This increases the chances of
4.Ventricular 140 19 the patient to survive the fatality.
fibrillation

We have studied the block diagram and operation of

E=1/2 CV2 ----------------------------- (3)
Automated External De-Fibrillation (AED).

C =16 µF, V= Applied voltage in Volts

3.2. Future Scope

• GSM interface for notification on usage

E = Energy in Joule
One can give a GSM interface so that it indication
when the device is used, to

Pre-fed numbers. The voice would be a prerecorded

voice message which would give the location of the
device so that the emergency service can reach the
exact location of the fatality.
Graph No. 2.3: heart rate Vs different conditions
This will help the person on the site other than the
patient. The helper doesn’t have to think of calling an
ambulance. This is done automatically. The system
also informs the closed ones of the patient if the
device is used at home.

3.3 Applications
1. Fitness Center and Health clubs.

2. Ambulance, Fire fighting crew.

3. Government offices, corporate offices.

4. Restaurants, Airport, Hotels.

5. Shopping Centers, Sports Stadiums.

6. Schools, Universities, Community Centers.

3. Conclusions 7. Fitness Center and Health clubs.

3.1 Conclusion 4. Bibliography

In the modern times we have gained the pace to reach

our goals but in the journey we have also closed on
the many life threatening diseases. The rise of heart 1.Handbook of biomedical instrumentation by R.S.
attack fatalities has also gone up alarmingly.
khandpur (pn 714-727)

2. Healthy heart handbook for women by Marian

 Sandmaier.

3. State of heart by Larry W.Stephenson

4. The heart by Matthias Rath

5. Understanding heart diseases by Arthur Selzer