CMOS Bidirectional Electrode Array for Electrogenic Cells

We report on a CMOS-based microelectrode-array chip (6.5 by 6.5 mm²) for bidirectional communication (stimulation and recording) with electrogenic cells such as cardiomyocytes or neurons targeted at investigating electrical signal propagation within cellular networks in vitro. The integration of on-chip circuitry, which includes analog signal amplification and filtering stages, analog-to-digital converters, a digital-to-analog converter, stimulation buffers, temperature sensors, and a digital interface for data transmission notably improves the overall system performance. Additionally, the interconnect challenge that limits the size of currently used microelectrode arrays is overcome. Measurements with cardiomyocytes and neuronal cells were successfully carried out, and the circuitry characterization evidenced a total equivalent input noise of 11.7 µ VRMS(0.1 Hz -100 kHz) at a gain of 1,000.