A-Series Buzsaki Probes
A-Series layout that staggers recording sites rather than spacing them evenly, so neighbouring sites view one neuron from several positions — the geometry a spike sorter needs to separate units in a densely packed population.
What the layout does
The Buzsaki layout staggers sites across the width of the shank instead of placing them on a single line. A neuron near the shank is therefore seen by several sites at different offsets, and the amplitude pattern across those sites is what a sorter uses to tell one unit from its neighbour. In a structure where cell bodies are packed tightly — CA1 being the canonical case — that difference decides whether a population resolves into units or stays as multi-unit hash.
Density, and what it costs
Sites are a uniform 165 µm² across the family. The median design carries 32 sites per shank, twice the A-Series median of 16, on 1 to 8 shanks and 16 to 256 sites in total.
The trade is coverage per channel. At twice the site density per shank, a 64-channel Buzsaki design samples less of a trajectory than a 64-channel linear one. Choose it when the question is which neurons, in a structure you can target; choose a linear layout when the question is how activity varies with depth.
Typical use
Hippocampal replay, sharp-wave ripple work, and spatial-navigation studies, where separating many simultaneously active units from one penetration is the experiment.
Substrate
Silicon, 15 µm as standard, with a 50 µm option on some designs.