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Platinum electrode noise in the ENG spectrum

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Abstract

The noise from Pt electrodes has not been measured before. We measured the impedance and noise between pairs of Pt electrodes in cylindrical cells within frequency bands which contain the electroneurogram band (ENG, 500–10 kHz). The results show that the noise from the Pt-saline interface and also the volume conductor are the same as the thermal noise from the real part of those impedances. This means that Pt electrodes are convenient for neural recording because the total source noise from the electrodes and the volume conductor (tissue) can be estimated from the measured total impedance and calculating the thermal noise associated with the resistive part. This differs from Ag/AgCl electrodes for which the interface noise has been reported to be higher than the thermal noise, and therefore calculation of the total noise will be more difficult.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant GR/S93790/01) and the Commission of the European Union (Grants ‘Healthy Aims’ and ‘IMANE’) for supporting this work. We also wish to thank Dr Martin Schuettler for making the thin film Pt discs and for many helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK

    Xiao Liu & Andreas Demosthenous

  2. Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Nick Donaldson

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  1. Xiao Liu
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  2. Andreas Demosthenous
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  3. Nick Donaldson
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Correspondence to Nick Donaldson.

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Liu, X., Demosthenous, A. & Donaldson, N. Platinum electrode noise in the ENG spectrum. Med Biol Eng Comput 46, 997–1003 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-008-0386-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-008-0386-z

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