title: A micromachined silicon depth probe for multichannel neural recording.
abstract: A process of making a new type of silicon depth-probe microelectrode array is described using a combination of plasma and wet etch. The plasma etch, which is done using a low temperature oxide (LTO) mask, enables probe thickness to be controlled over a range from 5 to 90 mu. Bending tests show that the probe's mechanical strength depends largely on shank thickness. More force can be applied to thicker shanks while thinner shanks are more flexible. One can then choose a thickness and corresponding mechanical strength using the process developed. The entire probe shaping process is performed only at low temperature, and thus is consistent with the standard CMOS fabrication. Using the probe in recording from rat's somatosensory cortex, we obtained four channel simultaneous recordings which showed clear independence among channels with a signal-to-noise ratio performance comparable with that obtained using other devices.
authors.affiliation: Inter-university Semiconductor Research Center, Seoul National University, Korea.
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: D Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D004867:Equipment Design; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012825:Silicon; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon