An Integrated Patch-Clamp Amplifier for High-Density Whole-Cell Recordings

We fabricated an integrated patch-clamp amplifier capable of recording nano-amperes of current in whole-cell patch recording. Patch-clamp amplifiers presently consist of a head-stage and a large controller box that contains many hundreds of components. Our design compresses the function of the head-stage and the controller box into one chip that can be mounted near the patch-clamp electrode and can be controlled through a high-speed serial bus paving the way for higher densities in parallel patch-clamp systems. We report on the electrical measurements from the fabricated device.

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