International Journal of Reconfigurable and Embedded Systems (IJRES)
Vol 15, No 2: July 2026

A review of field-programmable gate array-based biomedical signal processing for public health applications

Tole Sutikno (Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)
Aiman Zakwan Jidin (Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka)
Lina Handayani (Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)



Article Info

Publish Date
01 Jul 2026

Abstract

Biomedical signal processing is essential for modern diagnostics, monitoring, and preventive healthcare in public health and mobile health (mHealth) systems. Signals such as electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and heart rate variability (HRV) offer vital insights into brain, muscle, and cardiovascular health. However, achieving real-time, energy-efficient, and scalable processing remains challenging for conventional hardware such as central-processing units (CPUs), graphics-processing units (GPUs), and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) provide a promising alternative through their reconfigurability, parallelism, and adaptability to dynamic biomedical workloads. This review examines FPGA-based implementations for EEG, EMG, and HRV processing, focusing on key metrics including latency, throughput, and power efficiency. It also discusses design strategies such as low-power optimization, hardware–software co-design, and FPGA-based machine learning acceleration, with attention to data integrity and security in medical contexts. Integration with wearable, portable, and telemedicine platforms is explored, alongside comparative analyses with traditional computing architectures. The paper identifies challenges in power–performance trade-offs, design complexity, and clinical validation, and highlights emerging directions such as artificial intelligence (AI)-driven FPGA platforms, neuromorphic design, and sustainable low-cost solutions for large-scale health monitoring. Overall, FPGA-based biomedical signal processing emerges as a foundation for intelligent, efficient, and accessible next-generation public-health technologies.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

IJRES

Publisher

Subject

Economics, Econometrics & Finance

Description

The centre of gravity of the computer industry is now moving from personal computing into embedded computing with the advent of VLSI system level integration and reconfigurable core in system-on-chip (SoC). Reconfigurable and Embedded systems are increasingly becoming a key technological component ...