New high performance optical sensor for heart rate monitoring ideal for wearables

ROHM has introduced an optical sensor for heart rate monitoring optimized for wearable devices such as sports bands and smart watches. The BH1790GLC leverages proprietary analog circuit technology and optical sensor expertise to improve sensitivity, allowing pulse waves to be detected with high accuracy, even with low LED brightness, resulting in class-leading low power consumption. The company utilizes optical sensor development expertise and IR removal technology cultivated over many years to develop an optical sensor for heart rate monitoring optimized for wearables that meets market needs for low power consumption and high accuracy. A specialized optical filter enables high accuracy detection, extending battery life while reducing the effects of IR rays by 10x vs conventional products. This makes it possible to acquire high quality pulse signals even in environments with strong IR presence, such as outdoors, or under intense movements (i.e. sports), contributing to increased performance and further evolution in the wearable device market. In addition, an optical heart rate monitor expansion board (BH1790GLC-EVK-001) is available that can collect and process sensor information by connecting to an open platform (general MCU board) such as Arduino Uno.