High-resolution MEA platform for in-vitro electrogenic cell networks imaging

A platform based on an active-pixel-sensor electrode array (APS-MEA) for high-resolution imaging of in-vitro electrogenic cell cultures is presented, characterized and validated under culture conditions. The system enables full frame acquisition at 8 kHz from 4096 microelectrodes integrated with separations of 21 mum and zoomed area acquisition with temporal resolutions down to 8 mus. This bi-modal acquisition feature opens new perspectives in particular for neuronal activity analysis and for the correlation of micro-scale and macro-scale behaviors. The low-noise performances of the integrated amplifier (11 muV_RMS) combined with a hardware implementation reflecting image-/video-concepts enable high-resolution acquisitions with real-time processing capabilities adapted to the handling of the large amount of acquired data.