There is a multitude of scenarios that demand more than one channel of a potentio-/galvanostat. The reasons vary greatly – just to name a few typical settings:

• automating sequential multi-sensor probing over
• the need of scaling up experiments to more throughput via parallel experiments
• complex multi-electrode arrangements with need for specific synchronized control
• simultaneous comparison of a single or a set of test targets/sensors to a single or a group of reference sensors

As diverse as the reasons for using multichannel arrangements are the choices for solutions. In general, there are four basic approaches:

• multiple single-channel potentiostat / galvanostat
• multiplexing
• multi-potentio-/galvanostat
• poly-potentiostat