A Novel Multi-Functional High-Density MEA Platform for Studying Electrogenic Cells

• ¹ ETH Zürich, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Switzerland
• ² ETH Zurich, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Switzerland
• ³ ETH Zurich, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Switzerland

Motivation In currently available high-density microelectrode arrays (HD-MEA), large number of electrophysiological recording amplifiers are integrated on a CMOS chip, in order to achieve low-noise measurements with high-spatial resolution [1]. In order to better understand the electrical and chemical interaction between neurons, more sensing units need to be added to the MEA chip. Here we present a high-density MEA platform which provides large number of simultaneous recording channels, voltage/current stimulation units, impedance measurement units and neurotransmitter measurement units [2]. Material and Methods The novel HD-MEA chip provides an active sensing area of approximately 4.48x2.43mm2 containing 59’760 electrodes for in-vitro measurements. A setup was developed for sending the configuration commands to the chip and acquiring the output data on the PC. The configuration commands are generated using a C# application. The generated commands are sent to a USB-to-Parallel interface, and then to an FPGA. FPGA buffers these data and sends them to the chip with a precisely controlled timing between commands. The output data of the chip is received and stored on PC using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) Card at 48MHz/10-bit sampling rate. Results Several stimulation and recordings have been performed on the fabricated chip with the cultured neurons, which demonstrated the low-noise, low-offset capabilities of the chip as well as selective stimulation. Conclusion The presented HD-MEA provides a unique platform for studying the neural activities in single cellular or network scale. The large sensing area and Multi-functionality feature of this chip allows several low-noise experiments on the same neuronal culture or acute tissue slice. References [1] A. Hierlemann, U. Frey, S. Hafizovic, F. Heer. Growing Cells atop Microelectronic Chips: Interfacing Electrogenic Cells in Vitro with CMOS-based Microelectrode Arrays. Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 99, No. 2, pp. 252-284, 2011. [2] V. Viswam, J. Dragas, A. Shadmani, Y. Chen, A. Stettler, J. Müller, A. Hierlemann, "Multi-Functional Microelectrode Array System Featuring 59,760 Electrodes, 2048 Electrophysiology Channels, Impedance and Neurotransmitter Measurement Units," ISSCC 2016, Session 22.8, Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 394-396 (ISBN 978-1-4673-9467-3).