Development of a Modular Electromyography System

The design of current electromyography (EMG) systems focuses on specific applications. One design focuses on the use of bipolar electrodes to monitor a single muscle group. Several of these electrodes can then be used to monitor different muscles on the body simultaneously. Another design places many electrodes in an array on a limb or over a single muscle. One cannot be used for the other. Additionally the design of an EMG system must account for several sources of noise that can be orders of magnitude larger than the EMG signal itself.

The goal of this work was to design an active EMG electrode that could be used as bipolar electrodes or in an electrode array. Two electrodes were designed and tested. One design only worked in bipolar and the other did not possess the desired noise immunity. Explanations to the behavior of the electrodes are presented along with possible modifications the the electrodes to achieve the desired performance.