A miniaturized lock-in amplifier design suitable for impedance measurements in cells [biological cells]

A comparison of the performance for impedance analysis of biological cells between a newly fabricated miniature lock-in amplifier and an industry standard Stanford Research SR830 lock-in amplifier is described. Experimental results compare measurement error over a range of characteristic model impedances from 1 kHz to 10 MHz. Within the functional frequency range of the SR830, the miniaturized lock-in amplifier performs with approximately 30% less precision than the SR830. At higher frequencies, that are more suitable for impedance analysis in biological cells, however, the miniaturized lock-in continues to perform with less than 10% average error while the SR830 fails to operate entirely. With consistent performance at higher frequencies, this miniaturized lock-in amplifier is a desirable instrument for use in biological impedance analysis.