Extended gate electrode arrays for extracellular signal recordings

We have fabricated arrays of planar gold electrodes arranged in a matrix of 8×8 with active areas ranging from 6 to 30 μm in diameter. An electronic amplification circuitry based on commercial junction field-effect transistors was used where the gold sensor fields act as extended gate electrodes (EGE) of the transistors, which leads to a new approach for long-term extracellular recording systems in vitro. The high input resistance of the amplification circuitry allows the use of small planar bare gold electrodes without further modification which therefore extends the frequency range of the measuring set-up down to the DC-level. The performance of our recording system has been tested using rat cardiac myocytes cultured directly on the device surface. The recorded signals were then compared in shape and size with recordings performed with a similar extracellular measurement set-up based directly on field-effect transistors with non-metallized gate electrodes. By simulations we could show the influence of the electrode capacitance on the time-course and on the size of the measured signals.