title: Close-Packed Silicon Microelectrodes for Scalable Spatially Oversampled Neural Recording.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neural recording electrodes are important tools for understanding neural codes and brain dynamics. Neural electrodes that are closely packed, such as in tetrodes, enable spatial oversampling of neural activity, which facilitates data analysis. Here we present the design and implementation of close-packed silicon microelectrodes to enable spatially oversampled recording of neural activity in a scalable fashion.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our probes are fabricated in a hybrid lithography process, resulting in a dense array of recording sites connected to submicron dimension wiring.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We demonstrate an implementation of a probe comprising 1000 electrode pads, each 9 × 9 μm, at a pitch of 11 μm. We introduce design automation and packaging methods that allow us to readily create a large variety of different designs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We perform neural recordings with such probes in the live mammalian brain that illustrate the spatial oversampling potential of closely packed electrode sites.
authors.affiliation: MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
authors.forename: Jorg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scholvin
authors.affiliation: MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
authors.forename: Justin P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Kinney
authors.affiliation: MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
authors.forename: Jacob G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.affiliation: Boston University, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moore-Kochlacs
authors.affiliation: Boston University, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kopell
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceMIT.
authors.forename: Clifton G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Fonstad
authors.affiliation: MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Edward S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Boyden
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D051379:Mice; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon