Why NeuroNexus
Do the science you planned, not the troubleshooting you didn't.
Electrodes, instruments, and software made by one company since 2004, so the hours, the animals, and the budget go into the result.
22 years
Making neural probes since 2004
5,100+ papers
Peer-reviewed publications that used NeuroNexus electrodes
1,000+ labs
On six continents
150+ years
Cumulative design experience on call
Where the time goes
A study is funded for a question. Most of what delays the answer has nothing to do with the question.
Week six of a chronic study, sites dropping out one by one, and a cohort that cannot be replaced this year.
A site layout that differs from the one in the analysis, so every spike has to be re-assigned before anything is believed.
A probe, a headstage, and an adapter bought from three places, and an afternoon finding out which one is wrong.
Lead times nobody can state, so the surgery date moves and the animal order with it.
These are the failures the rest of this page exists to prevent. Each one is a design decision, a process step, or a person at NeuroNexus whose job is that it does not happen to you.
Faster and for less, without giving up the result
The trade-off a lab is usually offered is cost against performance. These electrodes are built so that it is not the choice.
An acute silicon probe is cleaned and reused across many sessions. Every site is impedance-tested after packaging, and that factory record is what the lab compares against before each use, so a probe is retired when its numbers say so, not on a guess.
Setup, cleaning, and careMore than 210 silicon designs and 50 grid designs, each with a documented datasheet, and three ways to choose before you order: filter the catalog, read the selection guides, or describe the experiment to an Application Scientist.
Choosing an electrodeMore than 5,100 peer-reviewed publications used these electrodes, from fruit flies to non-human primates and from acute sessions to months-long chronic recordings. It is the record other probe designs are measured against: published evaluations of new probe designs use a NeuroNexus probe as the comparator.
The publication databaseThree things a lab has to be able to trust
The products, the supply, and the guidance. We enable researchers to focus on the science rather than the tools.
Every site where the design says it is, reading the impedance its area predicts, insulated for the life of the experiment. Reproducible across species and chronic timescales. Recording, stimulation, optical, and drug-delivery builds on the same process.
What makes an electrode goodOne company end to end: probe, package, headstage, acquisition, and software from one purchase order and one accountable partner, engineered together, and usable à la carte. NeuroNexus controls the process and the IP, so lead times are plannable and custom designs run on the same line.
Custom designsApplication Scientists before and after the order; 150+ years of cumulative design experience on call; surgical guides, setup and care documents, a glossary, and connectivity guides written by the people who made the parts.
Talk to an Application ScientistTwo electrodes with the same specification are not the same electrode
A specification describes a design. A probe is a design that has been through a process, a set of materials, and a package. Those four decide whether the specification is what arrives in the box.
Design
Geometry fixed in the mask set and chosen for the target: linear arrays for layers, tetrode and polytrode layouts for units, multi-shank for columns, 3-D arrays for a volume, Vector Arrays for deep targets. 4 to 1,024+ sites; 5, 15, or 50 µm silicon; 12 µm polyimide.
Process
A proprietary thin-film process descended from the Michigan probe and refined since 2004. Batch fabrication, so the probes of a design are identical rather than similar; impedance clusters where site area predicts it.
Materials
Iridium sites, with SIROF at under 100 kΩ for a 177 µm² site and Z-Coat for roughly an order of magnitude lower impedance in the same footprint; platinum on grids; a proprietary low-stress silicon carbide dielectric for chronic lifetime.
Z-CoatPackage
Fourteen package series, assembled and inspected by a dedicated production team. The bonds, the encapsulation, and the body are where field failures are prevented, and every site is impedance-tested after packaging.
What you can check before the probe goes in
Measure every site at 1 kHz and compare the distribution with the factory record that ships with the probe: a 177 µm² iridium site reads 200 kΩ to 1 MΩ, and the sites of one design cluster together. A site that has drifted, a shank that is bent, or a lot that does not match the last one shows up here, before an animal is involved.
Software that knows the probe
Radiens carries the geometry and channel map of every NeuroNexus electrode, so signal quality is judged against the device you are recording with while you can still fix it. It takes acquisition through analysis without switching tools, reads most formats, and your data stays home. The Standard tier is free, and it works with electrodes that are not ours.
We use what we build
NeuroNexus runs NIH-funded research programs with Harvard, Mayo Clinic, and Purdue on the same probes and software it sells. The advice an Application Scientist gives comes from experiments that are running now.
The evidence, in your own time
Every claim about the electrodes on this page is in one of these documents, with its sources.
Tell us the experiment
Species, target, signal, and channel count are enough. An Application Scientist replies with the designs that fit, or a custom design if none does.
Research use only. NeuroNexus products are for non-clinical research use and must not be used in human or veterinary medical procedures.
Why NeuroNexus — FAQ
Why do two probes with the same specification perform differently?
A specification describes a design; a probe is a design that has been through a process and a package. Site size, trace width, dielectric integrity, bond quality, and encapsulation all have tolerances that never appear on a spec sheet and each changes what the probe records. NeuroNexus controls the four determinants of quality, design, fabrication process, materials, and package assembly, on one proprietary process, so every probe of a design is identical rather than similar. The determinants and how to check them are in What Makes a Thin-Film Electrode Good.
What quality control does every NeuroNexus probe get?
Every catalog design has a documented datasheet, and every probe of a design is made under the same batch conditions on the same proprietary process. Arrays are inspected after release from the wafer, and after packaging every site is impedance-tested; that factory measurement is recorded and is the baseline a laboratory compares against on first use and after every session. Site yield and impedance consistency are tracked from probe to probe and lot to lot. NeuroNexus controls the design, the process, and the intellectual property end to end.
How do I verify a probe before a recording session?
Measure the impedance of every site in saline before mounting and compare the distribution with the probe's own baseline: the factory record on first use, your last measurement afterward. A good array reads tightly, for 177 µm² iridium sites mostly between 200 kΩ and 1 MΩ at 1 kHz; a site far above the cluster has a broken trace, an open bond, or a contaminated surface, one far below has a short. Inspect under a microscope for clean, uniform sites and intact bonds, and keep a per-site log across sessions. Silicon Probes: Setup, Handling, Cleaning and Care walks through it.
What does the NeuroNexus publication record mean for my study?
NeuroNexus technology has appeared in more than 5,000 peer-reviewed publications across neuroscience and bioengineering, in more than 1,000 laboratories on six continents, in species from fruit flies to non-human primates and in acute and months-long chronic preparations. For a study it means the probe geometry, materials, and packages have been used and reported under conditions close to yours, that reviewers know the devices, and that NeuroNexus probes are the comparator other groups measure new probe designs against. The NeuroNexus scientific publication database lists the publications by product family.
What support comes with a NeuroNexus order?
Application Scientists help match the probe geometry and package to the preparation before the order and remain an inquiry or a phone call away afterward; NeuroNexus engineers and scientists hold more than 150 years of cumulative neural-interface design experience and run NIH-funded research programs in-house. Every order is backed by the documentation on this site: surgical guides for acute and chronic preparations, setup, handling, cleaning, and care procedures, a glossary of every design parameter, connectivity and compatibility guides, and troubleshooting. Custom geometries, materials, and packaging are designed with the laboratory and built on the same process with the same quality controls.