CMOS-Based High-Density Silicon Microprobe Arrays for Electronic Depth Control in Intracortical Neural Recording–Characterization and Application

Abstract

This paper reports on the characterization and intracortical recording performance of high-density complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-based silicon microprobe arrays. They comprise multiplexing units integrated on the probe shafts being part of the signal transmission path. Their electrical characterization reveals a negligible contribution on the electrode impedances of 139 ± 11 kΩ and 1.2 ± 0.1 MΩ and on the crosstalks of 0.12% and 0.98% for iridium oxide (IrO x ) and platinum (Pt) electrodes, respectively. The power consumption of the single-shaft probe was found to be 57.5 μW during electrode selection. The noise voltage of the switches was determined to be 5.6 nV/ √ Hz; it does not measurably affect the probe performance. The recording selectivity of the electrode array is demonstrated by electrical potential measurements in saline solution while injecting a stimulating current using an external probe. In-vivo recordings in anesthetized rats using all 188 electrodes with a pitch of 40.7 μm are presented and analyzed in terms of single neural activity and signal-to-noise ratio. The concept of electronic depth control is proven by performing mechanical translation of the probe shaft while electronically switching to adjacent electrodes to compensate the mechanical shift.[2012-0027] IndexTerms-Complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry, CMOS MEMS, electrode impedances, electrode selection, high-density electrode array, neural recording, noise, potential measurements, silicon microprobes.

Large-scale recording of thalamocortical circuits: in vivo electrophysiology with the two-dimensional electronic depth control silicon probe

“…However, modern CMOS technology enables the integration of electrical components, such as multiplexing and amplifying units on the probe shaft itself . The EDC system takes the advantage of CMOS technology by integrating multiplexing units on the probe shaft, thus keeping the overall recording setup size small, while having a high number and flexibility of recording channels (Dombovari et al 2014;Lopez et al 2014;Ruther and Paul 2015;Seidl et al 2012;Torfs et al 2011).…”

“…Over the past few decades, single-wire electrodes used for in vivo extracellular recording of action potentials evolved into multielectrode arrays covering the range of up to 1,000 recording sites (Bai and Wise 2001;Berényi et al 2014;Blanche et al 2005;Bragin et al 2000;Campbell et al 1991;Chen et al 2009;Cheung 2007;Csicsvari et al 2003;Drake et al 1988;Du et al 2009Du et al , 2011Grand et al 2011;Karmos et al 1982;Khodagholy et al 2015;Kipke et al 2008;Kubie 1984;Lopez et al 2014;Márton et al 2015;McNaughton et al 1983;Michon et al 2016;Okeefe and Recce 1993;Ruther et al 2010;Ruther and Paul 2015;Scholvin et al 2016;Seidl et al 2011Seidl et al , 2012Shobe et al 2015;Torfs et al 2011;Wilson and McNaughton 1993;Wise et al 1970Wise et al , 2008. With such a high number of recording sites neuroscientists are able to monitor the activity of hundreds of neurons simultaneously both in anesthetized and in freely moving animals (Berényi et al 2014;Ifft et al 2013;Nicolelis et al 2003;Vandecasteele et al 2012), which is fundamental for the understanding of complex neuronal computations and higher order cognitive functions, such as learning, memory, or language (Buzsáki 2004).…”

“…Currently, tetrodes and silicon polytrodes using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies are the main tools of neuroscience laboratories performing extracellular electrophysiological experiments (Berényi et al 2014;Blanche et al 2005;Bragin et al 2000;Csicsvari et al 2003;Lopez et al 2014;Mechler et al 2011;Nguyen et al 2009;Seidl et al 2012). Despite the advantage of multiple recording sites, usually these devices need to be physically moved in the brain tissue after implantation to find the desired locations of neuronal activity.…”

“…One possibility to limit the adverse effects of mechanical translation of multielectrodes is the concept of electronic depth control (EDC; Neves et al 2008), which enables the electronic selection of individual recording sites from high-density, silicon-based multielectrode arrays with the aid of dedicated control software (Dombovari et al 2014;Seidl et al 2010Seidl et al , 2011Seidl et al , 2012Torfs et al 2011). The recently developed complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based EDC microprobes are able to record from many brain regions simultaneously and to fine-tune independent recording positions according to the experimental needs without the physical movement of the probe.…”

A Neural Probe With Up to 966 Electrodes and Up to 384 Configurable Channels in 0.13 $\mu$m SOI CMOS

“…To address these drawbacks, the active electrode concept was proposed in [7], where in situ buffering circuits (pixel amplifiers) were integrated beneath each electrode to locally transform the high electrode impedance and be able to drive the high interconnect density. This approach has enabled an almost threefold increase of the electrode number per cross-sectional area in [7] compared to prior non-active silicon probes [2]- [6], [8], [9].…”