Multichannel Systems MEA Manual - Manual (Page 50)

MEA Manual
50
7 Recording with MEAs
7.1 Mounting the MEA
7.1.1 Cleaning the Contact Pads
You should always clean the contact pads with alcohol before placing it into the MEA amplifier. Even
if you do not see any contaminations, a very thin grease layer from touching the pads with bare fingers,
for example may be present and results in a bad contact between the pads and the amplifier pins. A bad
contact will result in an increased noise level on the affected channel. This is the most prominent handling
error.
 Carefully wipe the MEA contact pads with a clean and soft tissue moistened with pure alcohol.
7.1.2 Positioning the MEA
Important: MEAs are not symmetrical! That is, why the writing (for example NMI, LEITER, MEA type) on
the MEA chip should be on the right side viewed from the front, with the sockets of the amplifier in the
back. MEAs with one big internal reference electrode should be placed with reference electrode to the left
side in the amplifier. Otherwise, the MEA layout will not match with the pin layout of the channel map in
MC_Rack.
When placing a special MEA into the amplifier, for example 120MEA, HighDense MEA, 4Q1000 MEA
or HexaMEA, please make sure that the orientation of the MEA is correct, respectively.
7.1.3 Grounding the Bath
Make sure that the bath is connected to the amplifier's ground.
 Attach the provided silver wire or Ag/AgCl pellet to the amplifier's ground and place it into the bath.
 — OR — If you use a MEA with internal reference electrode, connect the ground to the reference electrode
socket (pin 15) with the provided connector.
Please see the manual of the respective MEA amplifier for more information about mounting MEAs and
grounding.