Probe Package

The package connector fixes which headstage reads the probe and how. DIP-16, Omnetics 16-, 32- and 64-pin and Samtec 40-pin connectors mate a SmartLink headstage directly, and an X-Series headstage through an X-Series connector adapter. The Molex X3 and Panasonic 96-pin connectors on X-Series packages mate an X-Series headstage directly. Hirose connectors on the ZIF and Vector VZ builds mate TDT ZIF-Clip headstages, and SmartLink 16 also takes the 16-channel ZIF. Activus packages integrate the headstage chip in the assembly and terminate in micro-HDMI for XDAQ or Smartbox, or in the 12-pin Omnetics SPI connector for Intan-compatible systems, with no separate headstage. Activus SiNAPS packages terminate in a 50-pin Samtec connector to the SiNAPS interface box and Smartbox. Reference and ground are brought out on the package connector. Stimulation through a passive package requires an X-Series stim-record headstage on XDAQ in record-and-stimulate mode.

The package also sets how the probe is mounted and what else is on the trajectory: a rigid printed-circuit interconnect for a stereotaxic holder (A-Series); a connector on the assembly with no cable for a chronic mouse implant (CM); a flexible polyimide cable between array and connector for a floating implant or a microdrive (Hybrid and the X-Series H builds); a support shaft for a deep target in a large animal (Vector, DBS); an optical fiber (optoelectrode builds), a fluidic channel (drug delivery), a second array bonded back to back (Fusion), or non-magnetic parts (MRI-conditional builds). Package quality is part of probe quality: the bonds from the array pads to the interconnect, the insulation over them and the body determine the probe's reliability in tissue. The fourteen package series each have their own entry, the chain the package feeds is under the recording chain, and the anatomy is illustrated in Silicon Probes and Thin-Film Grids: An Introduction.