The MultiClamp 700B current & patch clamp amplifier is useful for a wide variety of intracellular or extracellular recording, including:

• High-speed Current Clamp (sharp-electrode or field potentials)
• Patch Clamp (whole-cell, macro-patch or excised patch)
• Voltammetry / Amperometry
• Ion-selective measurement
• Bilayer recording

For  complete information and specifications, see the MultiClamp 700B manual (right column).

Major New Features

Internal automatic mode switch
Instantly switch recording modes by using the membrane potential as the trigger. Pre-set a voltage threshold in current-clamp mode, and MultiClamp 700B will automatically switch to voltage-clamp when the membrane potential reaches that voltage level. User-specified delay will allow you to perform creative new experiments.

Oscillation suppression
Sudden changes in membrane or pipette parameters may result in undesirable oscillations during whole cell recording. MultiClamp 700B will detect current or voltage oscillations and automatically disable or intelligently reduce compensation settings to protect your cell from damage.

Slow current injection
Slight voltage drift—often due to changing electrode properties—may contaminate an otherwise decent current-clamp recording. In order to maintain the membrane potential at a consistent level, MultiClamp 700B will automatically inject compensatory current over a user-defined time course.

Software Control

Instead of the usual front panel knobs and switches, the MultiClamp 700B is controlled by the MultiClamp 700B Commander, a program that runs on a host computer (PC and Macintosh; see Requirements) and communicates with the amplifier via a USB cable. This control interface provides automation of bridge balance, pipette offset, pipette and whole-cell capacitance compensation, in addition to “smart” features such as protection from oscillations and threshold-based mode change. Amplifier settings such as gain, filter frequency, whole-cell capacitance, recording mode and also input / output scale factors are automatically telegraphed to the data acquisition software via “messaging” through the computer operating system.

For a more in-depth look at the program, you can download the MultiClamp 700B Commander to try on your Windows computer.

Headstages

The MultiClamp 700B comes standard with two identical but independent CV-7B headstages, each of which contains both current-to-voltage and voltage-following circuitry. This design allows the user to rapidly switch between patch clamp recording and true high-speed current clamp recording. Thus, with two headstages, the MultiClamp 700B can perform the function of two patch clamps, two current clamps, or a combination of patch and current clamp amplifiers. Furthermore, two optional voltage-follower headstages (HS-2 type) can be connected to auxiliary inputs to allow third and fourth-point voltage recording.

HeadstagesMultiClamp 700B supports up to four simultaneous headstages. Two CV-7B headstages come standard; the HS-2A headstages are optional.

The CV-7B was designed for low noise and flexible recording features. However, some specialized applications require even more flexibility. For example, the rather large membrane capacitance in bilayer recording demands greater capacitance compensation. The optional CV-7B/BL headstage was developed for this purpose. Another optional headstage, the CV-7B/EC, was designed for large (± 2 V) commands required during electrochemistry recording (amperometry, voltammetry).

Includes

MultiClamp 700B Amplifier

• Two 1-CV-7B headstages
• US power cord (Part Number 1-3010-0011)
• European power cord, CEE7/7 (Part Number 1-3010-0013)
• Accessory kit (Part Number 1-2050-0068) containing: USB cable (Part number 1-2100-0548), two Baseplates for attaching headstages to manipulator (Part number 1-5200-0100), two Electrode Holders (Part number 1-HL-U), MultiClamp Commander software CDROM (Part number 1-MC 700B CMDR 2.1), two Patch-1U Model Cells (Part number 1-PATCH-1U), and Manual (Part number 1-2500-0157)
• Note: 1-CV-7B/BL and 1-CV-7B/EC headstages may be substituted for 1-CV-7B headstages

Optional headstages

• CV-7B/BL bilayer headstage (Part number 1-CV-7B/BL)
• CV-7B/EC electrochemistry headstage (Part number 1-CV-7B/EC)
• HS-2A-1LU headstage (1-HS-2A-X1LU)
• VG-2A-X100 bath clamp headstage (Part number 1-VG-2A-X100)