Conferring flexibility and reconfigurability to a 26,400 microelectrode CMOS array for high throughput neural recordings

Abstract

We present a highly configurable, high-temporal-and-spatial-resolution microelectrode array (MEA) system, fabricated in CMOS technology, featuring 26'400 platinum microelectrodes (5×9 μm 2 ) with a pitch of 17.5 μm, arranged in a rectangular grid within an overall area of 3.8×2.1 mm 2 . The array constitutes a very flexible bidirectional interface to electrogenic cells. High-throughput, subcellular-resolution recording and stimulation of large networks of neurons enable studies of information processing and learning capabilities of neurons. An exemplary recording session demonstrates the flexibility in electrode selection and shows the system's capabilities to record from widely-spaced sets of electrodes that provide a network level overview and to subsequently perform subcellular-resolution single cell recordings of selected areas of interest.