A microelectrode array（MEA） is presented, which is composed of 60 independent electrodes with 59 working ones and one reference one, and they are divided into 30 pairs. Except for the reference electrode, each pair consists of one stimulating electrode and one recording electrode. Supported by the peripheral circuits, four electrode states to study the bioelectrical signal of biological tissue or slice cultured in-vitro on the surface of the electrodes can be realized through each pair of electrodes. The four electrode states are stimulation, recording, stimulation and recording simultaneously, and isolation. The state of each pair of working electrodes can be arbitrarily controlled according to actual needs. The MEAs are fabricated in printed circuit board （PCB） technology. The total area of the PCB-based MEA is 49 mm × 49 mm. The impedance measurement of MEA is carried out in 0.9% sodium chloride solution at room temperature by means of 2-point measurements with an Agilent LCR meter, and the test signal for the impedance measurement is sinusoidal （AC voltage 50 mV, sweeping frequency 20 Hz to 10 kHz）. The electrode impedance is between 200 and 3 kΩ while the frequency is between 500 and 1 000 Hz. The electrode impedance magnitude is inversely proportional to the frequency. Experiments of toad sciatic nerve in-vitro stimulation and recording and signal regeneration between isolated toad sciatic nerves are carried out on the PCB-based MEA. The results show that the MEA can be used for bioelectrical signal stimulation, recording, stimulation and recording simultaneously, and isolation of biological tissues or slices in-vitro.
In order to make a 10 Gbit/s 2：1 half-rate multiplexer operate without external clocks, a 5 Gbit/s clock recovery （CR） circuit is needed to extract the desired clock from one input data. For the CR circuit, a 3-stage ring voltage-controlled oscillator （VCO） is employed to avoid an unreliable startup of a 2-stage VCO and a low oscillation frequency of a 4-stage VCO. A phase frequency detector （PFD） is used to expand the pull-in range to meet the wide tuning range of a VCO required by process-voltage-temperature （PVT） variation. SMIC 0. 18-μm CMOS technology is adopted and the core area is 170 μm ×270 μm. Measurements show that, under a 1.8 V supply voltage, it consumes only about 90 mW, and has an input sensitivity of less than 25 mV, an output single-ended swing of above 300 mV, a phase noise of - 114 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and a pull-in range of 1 GHz.
A neuronal signal detecting circuit and a neuronal signal stimulating circuit designed for a monolithic integrated MEA（micro-electrode array） system are described. As a basic cell of the circuits, an OPA（ operational amplifier） is designed with low power, low noise, small size and high gain. The detecting circuit has a chip area of 290 μm × 400 μm, a power dissipation of 2.02 mW, an equivalent input noise of 17.72 nV/ Hz, a gain of 60. 5 dB, and an output voltage from - 2. 48 to ＋ 2. 5 V. The stimulating circuit has a chip area of 130 μm × 290 μm, a power dissipation of 740 μW, and an output voltage from - 2. 5 to 2. 04 V. The parameters show that two circuits are suitable for a monolithic integrated MEA system. The detecting circuit and MEA have been fabricated. The test results show that the detecting circuit works well.
