Banner above shows detail of ultra dense recording sites (9x9 μm with a 11 μm pitch) on silicon probe
The Approach
Many aspects of neuroscience are data-starved because of technological bottlenecks. LeafLabs is overcoming this challenge by eliminating these bottlenecks at every stage of the pipeline.
Willow is the first product developed from the collaboration of LeafLabs and SNG: the 1024-channel data node is designed to be modular, one-tenth the cost per channel of existing systems, and scalable.
The data node contains an FPGA that processes 1024 channels of electrophysiological data by communicating concurrently with as many as 32 industry-standard neural amplifier chips. The raw, wide-band data is written directly to a storage drive by the FPGA, while simultaneously being forwarded to a computer for real-time feedback and monitoring by the user.
Close-up of a 1024-channel silicon probe
Willow System; showing probes, headstages, and data acquisition module
Visualization of a 2-second capture that preserves the geometric layout of the recording sites on the probe (here four rows and two columns). The amplitude of neural activity varies across the recording sites and reveals the spatial localization of the neuronal signal sources.
“Willow reduced per-channel cost by an order of magnitude compared to what had been commercially available.”
Streaming 32 channels allows online visualization of neural data.
