A novel multisite silicon probe for high quality laminar neural recordings

Abstract

A novel wet chemical etching process has been developed for the construction of multisite silicon-based neural interfaces. The fabricated probe shaft is 280 μm wide, 80 μm thick and 7 mm long. The current probe is equipped with 24 square-shaped platinum recording sites of 30 μm × 30 μm. The applied combination of wet chemical etching steps for the formation of the tip and the shaft allows the manufacturing of this neural interface in a wide variety of widths, thicknesses and lengths. Its sharp tip can easily penetrate both the dura and pia mater in animal experiments. The probe exhibits excellent electrophysiological performance when used for the measurement of local field potential, multiple and single unit activity in the cortex.