| abstract |
The invention concerns a microelectrode arrangement for leaking, with local resolution, electrical cell potentials, or for electrical stimulation of networks of biological cells such as for example cell cultures, tissue slices "in vitro" or biological tissue "in vivo". In order to attain high local resolution and high temporal resolution, the invention suggests that, as microelectrodes (M 1 to M n ), in each instance a contacting electrode (K 1 to K n ) be placed above a pad electrode (A 1 to A n ) onto a substrate (S); with light-sensitive elements, preferably in the shape of a continuous layer (P) arranged between the said contacting electrodes and the pad electrodes. By illuminating the light-sensitive layer (P) in the region of individual microelectrodes (M 1 to M n ), these microelectrodes are selected. Selection is preferably by the transmitted-light process through the substrate (S). In this case, substrate (S) and pad electrodes (A 1 to A n ) must be translucent. For selection by means of impinging light, the contacting electrodes (K 1 to K n ) are constructed in a translucent way (FIG. 1b). |