Patent Application
20240189813
This application claims the benefit under 35 USC § 119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0171633, filed on Dec. 9, 2022, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
The following description relates to an apparatus and method with neural signal measuring a cell of biological cells.
In a system that analyzes large-scale biological neural networks, technology for measuring an electrical signal of a cell is required.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In one general aspect, an apparatus for measuring an electrical signal of a cell may include a housing including a hollow inside therein; a cover configured to cover the housing and support a portion of a biological cell on the cover; an opening formed through the cover and configured to expose at least a portion of the cell to the hollow an inside of the housing; an electrode base disposed on a bottom of the housing; and one or more an electrode rods arranged between connected to the electrode base and configured to support the cover, and configured to support the cover, wherein the electrode base and/or the one or more electrode rods are arranged for sensing an electrical signal from at least another portion of the cell.
The one or more electrode rods may include a plurality of electrode rods, wherein the plurality of electrode rods is provided in a state of being are spaced apart from each other on the electrode base.
At least one of the plurality of electrode rods may be respectively disposed to surrounding the opening.
The electrode base and the electrode rods may be integrally formed.
The apparatus may further include an electrode cover attached to disposed on the cover and facing the electrode base.
The electrode cover may be integrally formed with the one or more electrode rods.
The apparatus may further include an electrode body disposed on a sidewall of the housing other than the electrode base, and facing the one or more electrode rods.
The electrode body may be integrally formed with the electrode base.
The apparatus may further include a conductive polymer filled in the hollow inside of the housing to provide an electrical connection of the electrical signal generated by the at least other portion of cell to the electrode base and/or the one or more electrode rods.
In another general aspect, an apparatus for measuring an electrical signal of a cell may include a housing including a hollow inside therein; a cover configured to cover the housing and support a portion of a biological cell on the cover; an opening formed through the cover and configured to expose at least a portion of the cell to the hollow inside of the housing; an electrode base disposed on a bottom of the housing; and a conductive polymer material filled in the hollow inside of the housing to provide an electrical connection of an electrical signal generated by at least another portion of the cell to the electrode base.
The apparatus may further include one or more electrode rods configured to support the cover with respect to the electrode base.
In another general aspect, a method of manufacturing an apparatus for measuring an electrical signal of a biological cell may include forming a conductive base and a house disposing insulative material on the conductive base; generating respective electrode rods extending from the conductive base by selectively removing the insulative material; disposing sacrificial material in the housing to cover at least respective portions of the respective electrode rods; forming a cover, on the sacrificial material, to cover a portion of an inside of the housing; and removing the sacrificial material.
Other features and aspects will be apparent from the following detailed description, the drawings, and the claims.
Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwise described or provided, the same drawing reference numerals may be understood to refer to the same or like elements, features, and structures. The drawings may not be to scale, and the relative size, proportions, and depiction of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration, and convenience.
The following detailed description is provided to assist the reader in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein. However, various changes, modifications, and equivalents of the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein will be apparent after an understanding of the disclosure of this application. For example, the sequences of operations described herein are merely examples, and are not limited to those set forth herein, but may be changed as will be apparent after an understanding of the disclosure of this application, with the exception of operations necessarily occurring in a certain order. Also, descriptions of features that are known after an understanding of the disclosure of this application may be omitted for increased clarity and conciseness.
The features described herein may be embodied in different forms and are not to be construed as being limited to the examples described herein. Rather, the examples described herein have been provided merely to illustrate some of the many possible ways of implementing the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein that will be apparent after an understanding of the disclosure of this application. The use of the term “may” herein with respect to an example or embodiment, e.g., as to what an example or embodiment may include or implement, means that at least one example or embodiment exists where such a feature is included or implemented, while all examples are not limited thereto.
The terminology used herein is for describing various examples only and is not to be used to limit the disclosure. The articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As non-limiting examples, terms “comprise” or “comprises,” “include” or “includes,” and “have” or “has” specify the presence of stated features, numbers, operations, members, elements, and/or combinations thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, operations, members, elements, and/or combinations thereof, or the alternate presence of an alternative stated features, numbers, operations, members, elements, and/or combinations thereof. Additionally, while one embodiment may set forth such terms “comprise” or “comprises,” “include” or “includes,” and “have” or “has” specify the presence of stated features, numbers, operations, members, elements, and/or combinations thereof, other embodiments may exist where one or more of the stated features, numbers, operations, members, elements, and/or combinations thereof are not present.
As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any one and any combination of any two or more of the associated listed items. The phrases “at least one of A, B, and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, and the like are intended to have disjunctive meanings, and these phrases “at least one of A, B, and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, and the like also include examples where there may be one or more of each of A, B, and/or C (e.g., any combination of one or more of each of A, B, and C), unless the corresponding description and embodiment necessitates such listings (e.g., “at least one of A, B, and C”) to be interpreted to have a conjunctive meaning.
Throughout the specification, when a component or element is described as being “connected to,” “coupled to,” or “joined to” another component or element, it may be directly “connected to,” “coupled to,” or “joined to” the other component or element, or there may reasonably be one or more other components or elements intervening therebetween. When a component or element is described as being “directly connected to,” “directly coupled to,” or “directly joined to” another component or element, there can be no other elements intervening therebetween. Likewise, expressions, for example, “between” and “immediately between” and “adjacent to” and “immediately adjacent to” may also be construed as described in the foregoing. It is to be understood that if a component (e.g., a first component) is referred to, with or without the term “operatively” or “communicatively,” as “coupled with,” “coupled to,” “connected with,” or “connected to” another component (e.g., a second component), it means that the component may be coupled with the other component directly (e.g., by wire), wirelessly, or via a third component.
Although terms such as “first,” “second,” and “third”, or A, B, (a), (b), and the like may be used herein to describe various members, components, regions, layers, or sections, these members, components, regions, layers, or sections are not to be limited by these terms. Each of these terminologies is not used to define an essence, order, or sequence of corresponding members, components, regions, layers, or sections, for example, but used merely to distinguish the corresponding members, components, regions, layers, or sections from other members, components, regions, layers, or sections. Thus, a first member, component, region, layer, or section referred to in the examples described herein may also be referred to as a second member, component, region, layer, or section without departing from the teachings of the examples.
Spatially relative terms such as “above,” “upper,” “below,” and “lower” may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element's relationship to another element as shown in the figures. Such spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, an element described as being “above” or “upper” relative to another element will then be “below” or “lower” relative to the other element. Thus, the term “above” encompasses both the above and below orientations depending on the spatial orientation of the device. The device may also be oriented in other ways (for example, rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations), and the spatially relative terms used herein are to be interpreted accordingly.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms, including technical and scientific terms, used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains and based on an understanding of the disclosure of the present application. Terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, are to be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the disclosure of the present application and are not to be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
Referring to
The electrical signal sensing system may include a system base 92 and one or more apparatuses 1, each of which is configured to measure the electrical signal of a corresponding cell of the cells 91. For the convenience of description, the apparatus 1 for measuring the electrical signal of the cell 91 is referred to as a sensing apparatus 1 hereinafter. A plurality of sensing apparatuses 1 may be provided. The sensing apparatus 1 may be mounted on the system base 92. The system base 92 may include a circuit that collects and analyzes the signal(s) sensed by the sensing apparatus(es) 1. The system base 92 and the sensing apparatus(es) 1 may be electrically and physically connected to one another.
The plurality of sensing apparatuses 1 may be provided on a plane, where the plurality of sensing apparatuses 1 may be provided in a state of being arranged horizontally and vertically side by side in the plane. The plurality of sensing apparatuses 1 may support the respective cells 91 and sense the electrical signals generated by the respective cells 91. The plurality of sensing apparatuses 1 may be disposed side by side on an xy plane. The electrical signal generated by each cell 91 may move to a z-axis direction through the aqueous solution and enter inside the sensing apparatus 1. The sensing apparatus 1 may include an electrode for receiving a corresponding electrical signal.
Referring to
The housing 11 may have a hollow therein. The aqueous solution may be filled inside the hollow of the housing 11. The aqueous solution may transmit the electrical signal generated by the corresponding cell 91 to the corresponding electrode. Here, the electrode may include the electrode base 14 and/or the one or more electrode rods 15. The electrode may have a three-dimensional (3D) shape inside the housing 11. The electrode may not be simply exposed to the aqueous solution in a plane, that is, in a two-dimensional (2D) shape, but may be exposed to the aqueous solution tridimensionally, that is, in a 3D shape. When the electrode is exposed to the aqueous solution in a 3D shape, a surface area of the electrode may be relatively large compared to the electrode exposed to the aqueous solution in a 2D shape. When the surface area of the electrode is relatively large, an impedance of the sensing apparatus 1 may be relatively reduced. When the impedance of the sensing apparatus 1 is relatively reduced, the corresponding electrode may effectively sense the electrical signal generated by the corresponding cell 91.
The cover 12 may be configured to cover the housing 11 and support the cell 91. Also, the cover 12 may be configured to separate the cell 91 from the electrode so that the cell 91 does not directly contact the electrode. For example, the cover 12 may be integrally formed with the housing 11.
The opening 13 may be formed through the cover 12, and guide fluid flow between the inside and the outside of the housing 11. The cell 91 may be disposed at an upper end of the opening 13. For example, at least a portion of the cell 91 may be exposed to an inside (e.g., the hollow) of the housing 11. The electrical signal generated by the cell 91 may pass through the opening 13 in a −z direction and be transmitted to the inside of the housing 11.
In one example, the opening 13 may have a wide pillar shape so that the opening 13 may have a relatively low path impedance compared to the opening 13 having a narrow pillar shape. In an example, in order for the opening 13 to have a wide pillar shape, an area of the opening 13 on the xy plane may be increased while a z-axis depth of the opening 13 is the same. When the area of the opening 13 on the xy plane is excessively increased, the cell 91 may pass through the opening 13 and enter inside the housing 11 unintentionally. In order to prevent this situation from occurring, the z-axis depth of the opening 13 may be reduced.
For example, to reduce the z-axis depth of the opening 13, a thickness d1 of the cover 12 may be reduced, but the cover 12 may be damaged due to weights of the cover 12 and the cell 91. Thus in an example, the structural stability of the sensing apparatus 1 may be increased through the one or more electrode rods 15, which may be configured to support the cover 12. As the one or more electrode rods 15 may withstand a load of the cover 12 and the cell 91, the thickness d1 of the cover 12 may be formed relatively thinner compared to an example without the electrode rods 15 and with a larger z-axis depth of the opening 13. Since the path impedance is thus reduced, the electrode (including the electrode base 14 and electrode rods 15) may more sensitively sense the electrical signal generated by the cell 91.
In non-limiting examples, the electrode base 14 may be disposed on a bottom of the housing 11, the electrode base 14 may be disposed inside the housing 11, and the electrode base 14 may be provided in contact with a bottom surface 11a provided inside the housing 11.
The one or more electrode rods 15 may be connected to the electrode base 14. A length direction of the one or more electrode rods 15 may be formed in the z-axis direction. One end of the electrode rod 15 may be connected to the electrode base 14 and the other end of the electrode rod 15 may be connected to and support the cover 12. In one example, the other end of the electrode rod 15 may be provided in contact with a lower surface 12a of the cover 12, and thus support the load of the cover 12.
As shown in
The plurality of electrode rods 15 may be disposed to surround the opening 13. For example, referring to
As a non-limiting example, the electrode rods 15 and the electrode base 14 may be integrally formed.
Referring to
The electrode cover 26 may be disposed on the cover 22 and face the electrode base 24. In one example, the electrode cover 26 may be integrally formed with the electrode rods 25. The electrode cover 26 and the electrode rod 25 may be configured to support a load of the cover 22. A thickness d2 of an opening path may be formed relatively thin with the configuration of the electrode cover 26 and the electrode rods 25. The sensing apparatus 2 may have a relatively low path impedance.
The electrode body 27 may be disposed around a sidewall of the housing 11 and face the electrode rod 25. The electrode body 27 may be integrally formed with the electrode base 24. Although it is described with reference to the drawing that both the electrode cover 26 and the electrode body 27 are included, examples are not limited thereto. For example, the sensing apparatus 2 may only include one of the electrode cover 26 and the electrode body 27.
Referring to
The conductive polymer 38 may be provided in a liquid state. In one example, the conductive polymer 38 may have a net-shaped conductive structure, which may increase a surface area of a conductive structure inside the housing 31. With the increased surface area, the conductive polymer 38 may thus reduce the impedance of the sensing apparatus 3. The conductive polymer 38 may assist the electrical signal generated by the cell 91 to effectively sense the electrode.
Referring to
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While this disclosure includes specific examples, it will be apparent after an understanding of the disclosure of this application that various changes in form and details may be made in these examples without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims and their equivalents. The examples described herein are to be considered in a descriptive sense only, and not for purposes of limitation. Descriptions of features or aspects in each example are to be considered as being applicable to similar features or aspects in other examples. Suitable results may be achieved if the described techniques are performed in a different order, and/or if components in a described system, architecture, device, or circuit are combined in a different manner, and/or replaced or supplemented by other components or their equivalents.
Therefore, in addition to the above disclosure, the scope of the disclosure may also be defined by the claims and their equivalents, and all variations within the scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construed as being included in the disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2022-0171633 | Dec 2022 | KR | national |
