The Circuit Design Of Voltage-Clamp-Controlled Current-Clamp

The Patch-Clamp Technique is a pillar of modern experimental electrophysiology. Since it was invented, it has been widely used in the field of electrophysiology. A growing number of experimental studies have used patch-clamp amplifiers(PCAs) in the current-clamp(CC) mode to investigate classical excitability. In this paper we show that the measurements obtained in this way are affected by errors due to the electronic design of the PCA. In order to improve the performance of PCA, we propose a new design of the headstage. The new circuit is suitable for accurately recording physiological voltage signals and is perfectly compatible with the traditional voltage-clamp mode. Further more, a new technology of Voltage-clamp-controlled current-clamp (VCcCC) is introduced to meet the need of some kinds of research. The principle of this technology and the method of the circuit design is described. The test of the circuit show that VCcCC can provide all anticipative function and this system can meet the requirement of electrophysiology research.