Automate Scientific and Alpha MED Scientific have announced the latest generation of the MED64 multi-electrode array amplifier.
Featuring low-impedance planar microelectrodes (typically 10kOhm at 1kHz), the MED64 system offers 1uV rms noise - said to be lower than any other commercial multi-electrode array system.
The signal-to-noise ratio enables discrimination of particularly small signals such as single-unit activities from acute brain slices.
The high capacitance of the planar platinum-black-coated microelectrodes (50,000pF for a 50 x 50um microelectrode) enables stimulation at high frequencies and large current amplitudes (up to 200uA/0.2ms).
Stimulus artifacts return to 0uV within 0.5ms at non-stimulated channels, eliminating the need for blanking circuitry.
Stimulation through the amplifier's two built-in stimulators is now controlled by software, allowing quick selection of stimulus sites from any of the 64 electrodes in a probe.
Additional hardware improvements include: simplified USB connection; upgraded 16 bit A/D converter resolution; inclusion of an analogue low-pass filter (with cutoff frequency selectable in software) in addition to the pre-existing analogue high-pass filter; multiple types of digital filters are also available in the Mobius recording software; availability of two- and four-well probes for parallel sample processing; and capability for future upgrade to an eight-head multiplexed system.
A Windows 7 (64 bit) version of the Mobius recording and analysis software is now available for new and old systems.
Mobius is available in packages custom-tailored to particular applications, including: evoked potentials (fEPSP, LTP, LTD, paired-pulse), neuronal spike detection, sorting and frequency analysis, and cardiomyocyte signals (waveform/QT and frequency analysis).
