Patch clamp amplifier in chip form

See that metal box the pipette holder is attached to? That’s not a headstage, that’s the whole patch clamp amplifier. Reid Harrison is the lead author (co-senior authors are Craig Forest and Ed Boyden) on a paper reporting their successful development of a microchip with all of the functionality of a patch clamp amplifier.

Don’t underestimate this accomplishment. Sure, we make chips all the time. It’s a piece of cake. But the vast majority of chips are digital electronics and that’s easy. Patch clamp amplifiers measure extremely small signals and it is not trivial to miniaturize these devices and maintain high sensitivity and low noise.

This is probably the biggest innovation in patch clamp amplifier instrumentation in the past 10 years, maybe longer. When Axon Instruments was independent, they drove much of the innovation in this instrumentation. That slowed down a lot after their purchase by MD. Other device manufactures have made some nice amps, but most of the innovation has been in different combinations of features (e.g., switchable systems for recording and electroporating).

Don’t throw out your amp yet. There’s still a bit of room for improvement. The current chip has a small glitch for current measurements around zero, and the series resistance compensation is limited to about 30 MOhms, but those limitations are not fundamental and will get engineered out in future versions.