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Glossary

Neural electrophysiology, recording hardware, and signal concepts — defined once, cited where it counts.

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Acquisition

103 of 103 terms

Physical probe specifications, electrode properties, and hardware concepts

A B C D E F G H I K M N O P Q R S T V X Z

A

Hardware

A-Series Packages

Rigid printed-circuit interconnect for acute and intra-operative work; DIP-16, Samtec 40 or Omnetics 32 connectors.

Hardware

A-Series Probes (Buzsaki)

Closely spaced sites staggered near the tip of each shank, so one neuron appears on several sites and units separate in sorting.

Hardware

A-Series Probes (Isomura)

Shanks and site positions placed to record the same cortical layer across several columns.

Hardware

A-Series Probes (Linear and Edge Layouts)

Sites spread along the shank in a linear or edge layout, for laminar and depth profiling.

Hardware

A-Series Probes (Polytrode & Tetrode)

Sites in close columns or clusters of four on the shank, for single-unit isolation and current-source density analysis.

Hardware

Activus Package Series

Passive silicon probe with the digitizing headstage chip in the package; micro-HDMI to XDAQ or Smartbox, or Omnetics 12-pin SPI for Intan systems.

Hardware

Activus SiNAPS Package Series

SiNAPS CMOS active-pixel probe at 256 or 1,024 channels, digitized on the shank; Samtec 50-pin to the SiNAPS interface box and Smartbox.

B

Hardware

Brain Coverage Density

Sites per cubic millimeter of the volume a design spans; the density comparison across shank counts.

C

Hardware

Cardiac Surface Grid Series

12 µm polyimide grids for the epicardium, with accordion and segmented layouts that hold contact through the cardiac cycle.

Hardware

CM Package Series

Connector mounted on the assembly with no cable; small and light for chronic implants, typically in mice.

Hardware

Commutator

A rotating joint in the tether so a freely moving animal's turns do not wind up the cable.

Hardware

Commutators — Standard and PRO

The two X-Series commutators: Standard, passive and mechanical; Commutator PRO, motorized with active torque compensation.

Hardware

Connectors — the catalog vocabulary

The connector records every package, adapter and headstage is specified in, so compatibility is answered from the records.

D

Hardware

DAQ Chip (Neural Recording ASIC)

The low-power integrated circuit that amplifies, filters and digitizes the electrode channels; it sets the channel count, the noise floor and whether the system stimulates.

Hardware

Data Acquisition System (DAQ)

Acquires the digital data streams from every headstage and the optional GPIO signals, synchronizes them, and streams them to memory or disk on the host computer.

Hardware

DBS Package Series

Research DBS array lead with 32 or 40 addressable contacts on a 35 to 60 mm shaft; threaded Omnetics connector.

Hardware

DBS Series — rDBSA Research Arrays

Research DBS arrays: clinical lead geometry with 32 or 40 smaller, individually addressable contacts along one shaft.

Hardware

Deepest Site

Insertion depth of the last site — with the shallowest it brackets the depth range the design covers.

Hardware

Drug Delivery Package Series

16-site silicon probe with a fluidic channel on the same shank; DIP-16 or Omnetics 16 connector.

Hardware

Drug Delivery Series

Single-shank silicon probe with a stainless-steel fluidic channel beside the array; infuse and record at one site.

E

Hardware

ECoG Series Thin-Film Grids

12 µm polyimide grids for the cortical surface, epidural or subdural, 4 to 256 platinum sites from 25 µm to 1 mm.

Hardware

EEG Series Thin-Film Grids

12 µm polyimide EEG arrays for the skull surface, no craniotomy; 6 to 32 sites for mouse and rat.

Hardware

EIB Package Series

Passive electrode interface board: 64 channels to two Molex 34-pin board-to-board connectors, no active electronics.

Hardware

Electrode Site

One exposed patch of metal on a probe or grid — the contact that feeds one channel.

Hardware

Electrode Site Span (Width)

Outermost site to outermost site across the probe — how wide a region one insertion samples.

F

Hardware

Fusion Double-Sided Silicon Probes

Electrodes on both faces of one shank: twice the sites in the same cross-section.

Hardware

Fusion Package Series

Double-sided silicon probe, two electrode faces on one shank; the doubled site count comes out on several Omnetics connectors.

G

Hardware

GPIO (General Purpose I/O)

The general purpose analog input, analog output and digital I/O on a data acquisition system, used to connect separate lab equipment and instruments and synchronize their signals with the neural data.

H

Hardware

HD Series Silicon Probes (High-Density)

SiNAPS active-pixel probes: an active pixel under every site, digitized on the shank, 256 to 1,024 sites, record only.

Hardware

Headstage

Plugs into the package connector and amplifies, filters and digitizes every site at the head; record-only or record-and-stimulate.

Hardware

Hybrid Package Series

A silicon probe on one end of a thin-film ribbon cable, a PCB and connector on the other; the probe is mechanically uncoupled from the connector. H is for hybrid assembly: silicon and polymer.

I

Hardware

Impedance (Electrode Site)

What a site opposes to current at 1 kHz — it sets the noise floor, the amplifier match and the charge limit.

K

Hardware

Kontex System Adapter

Adapters into the XDAQ chain: a Neuropixels dock configuration and an XDAQ-side connector remap.

M

Hardware

Matrix Array Series

Silicon 3D probe platform: several 32-site 2D arrays in slots, 64 to 256 channels, to 10 mm deep.

Hardware

Matrix Package Series

Silicon 3D probe platform of several 32-site 2D arrays; 64 to 256 channels, passive or Activus, for recording and stimulation.

Hardware

Microdrive

A mount that advances an implanted probe in steps of tens of micrometers, to reach the target or to recover units after the tissue settles.

Hardware

MRI-Conditional Package

A package built from non-magnetic parts so a probe records inside the scanner under stated conditions.

N

Hardware

Neural Interface Volume

The volume of tissue the site field spans in three dimensions — the region a design interfaces with.

Hardware

NeuroNexus Probe Adapters

Adapters that join a probe package to a headstage or system it was not terminated for, by remapping pins or breaking out a dense connector.

O

Hardware

Optoelectrode Package

A package build that fixes an optical fiber beside the sites, so light is delivered on the recording trajectory.

P

Hardware

Peripheral Nerve Cuff Series

12 µm polyimide cuffs pre-curved at fabrication to wrap a peripheral nerve; diameter chosen, not adjusted.

Hardware

Probe Geometry and Site Layouts

Linear, edge, tetrode, polytrode and multi-shank layouts — the shanks and the spatial layout of sites on them.

Hardware

Probe Package

The connector assembly built around an electrode array; its connector fixes which headstage reads the probe and how it is mounted.

Q

Hardware

Q-Trode Package Series

One tetrode, four channels, on a CQ4 connector; 0.31 g.

Hardware

Q-Trode Series Silicon Probes

Four sites clustered at one depth on a single shank; unit isolation by amplitude ratio across the four.

R

Hardware

Reference Electrode

The contact every channel is measured against; its placement decides what is subtracted from every channel.

S

Hardware

Shallowest Site

Insertion depth of the first site below the tip datum — the number to check against anything near the surface.

Hardware

Shank Count

How many shanks a probe has — one samples a track, several sample laterally separated tracks in one insertion.

Hardware

Shank Length

Tip-to-base length of a shank — it caps how deep the probe can reach, and it is not the site span.

Hardware

Shank Separation

Center-to-center distance between neighboring shanks; one structure at several points, or several structures at once.

Hardware

Silicon Probe

Silicon probe with one or more thin shanks with sites at lithographically defined positions — the penetrating thin-film electrode.

Hardware

Site Area

The exposed surface of one site in µm² — it sets impedance, and with it noise, locality and charge capacity.

Hardware

Site Count

How many electrode sites a design has — it sets coverage, and the connector and headstage the probe needs.

Hardware

Site Density

Sites per square millimeter of the footprint — fine sampling of a small region, or sparse coverage of a broad one.

Hardware

Site Footprint

The rectangle the sites span, width × depth — the cross-section of tissue a design covers, not one site's area.

Hardware

Site Pitch

Center-to-center distance between neighboring sites; chosen against the detection radius.

Hardware

Site Pitch (Across)

Center-to-center spacing between site columns across a shank or array; lateral resolution.

Hardware

Site Span

First site to last along a shank — the tissue one placement samples, distinct from how deep the shank reaches.

Hardware

Smartbox Acquisition System

The NeuroNexus data acquisition system, in two configurations: four ports for Intan-based headstages, or one port to the SiNAPS interface box for SiNAPS probes at 1,024+ channels. Record only.

Hardware

SmartLink Headstages

Plugs straight into the package connector — DIP, Omnetics, ZIF or Samtec — no adapter; 2.0 g, record-only; NeuroNexus-made.

Hardware

Substrate Thickness

15 or 50 µm silicon, 12 µm polyimide; the balance between tissue displaced and stiffness to reach the target.

T

Hardware

The Recording Chain

Site, package, headstage, data acquisition system, software: each chosen separately, each choice constraining the next.

Hardware

Thin-Film Electrodes: Silicon Probes and Grids

Silicon probes that penetrate and polyimide grids for surfaces — the two thin-film electrodes and the axis between them.

Hardware

Thin-Film Grid

A 12 µm polyimide array for the surface of the brain, skull, nerve or heart — the surface thin-film electrode.

Hardware

Thin-Film Microfabrication

Depositing and patterning thin conductive and insulating layers on a wafer — how a probe or grid is built.

V

Hardware

Vector Array Series

Short silicon array on a rigid stainless-steel support body, 16 to 128 sites, for deep targets in large animals.

Hardware

Vector Package Series

Vector Array at 16 to 128 channels on a 70 or 110 mm shaft; Omnetics or ZIF-Clip connectors; for deep targets in large animals.

X

Hardware

X-Series Adapters

Connector adapters within the X-Series platform: EIB rails, EIB to M1P, X3/X3SR/X6 jumpers and extensions, and the general X-Series connector adapter.

Hardware

X-Series Headstages

Digitizes at the head, one micro-HDMI cable, 0.9 to 1.5 g; record-only with accelerometer or stim-record; Kontex-made.

Hardware

X-Series Packages

Smallest, lightest package in the catalog; Molex X3 or Panasonic 96 connectors that an X-Series headstage mates directly.

Hardware

XDAQ Acquisition Systems

The X-Series data acquisition systems: three models, 512 or 1,024 channels, record and record-and-stimulate modes, Neuropixels live; engineered and manufactured by Kontex, commercialized by NeuroNexus.

Z

Hardware

ZIF Package Series

Hirose zero-insertion-force connectors for TDT ZIF-Clip headstages; 16 to 64 channels.