Abstract
In this research, a high performance silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (transconductance as high as 34 µS and sensitivity as 84 nS/mV) is extensively studied and directly compared with planar passive microelectrode arrays for neural recording application. Electrical and electrochemical characteristics are carefully characterized in a very well-controlled manner. We especially focused on the signal amplification capability and intrinsic noise of the transistors. A neural recording system using both silicon nanowire field-effect transistor-based active-type microelectrode array and platinum black microelectrode-based passive-type microelectrode array are implemented and compared. An artificial neural spike signal is supplied as input to both arrays through a buffer solution and recorded simultaneously. Recorded signal intensity by the silicon nanowire transistor was precisely determined by an electrical characteristic of the transistor, transconductance. Signal-to-noise ratio was found to be strongly dependent upon the intrinsic 1/f noise of the silicon nanowire transistor. We found how signal strength is determined and how intrinsic noise of the transistor determines signal-to-noise ratio of the recorded neural signals. This study provides in-depth understanding of the overall neural recording mechanism using silicon nanowire transistors and solid design guideline for further improvement and development.
Highlights
Neural recording technique is one of the most vital tools to monitor and modulate brain activities.Access to the brain activities is required for implementing brain–machine interface applications
There are broadly two types of microelectrode arrays (MEAs) [1,2]: (1) passive MEAs with passive electrodes interfacing with neuron cells, which are connected to external amplifier systems for further signal processing [3]; (2) active MEAs with active electronic components such as field-effect transistors (FETs) or integrated circuits directly interfacing with the cells and amplifying the cellular signals [4]
Experimental setup in this work is divided by silicone nanowire (SiNW) FET-based active MEA and platinum black (PtBk) passive MEA
Summary
Neural recording technique is one of the most vital tools to monitor and modulate brain activities.Access to the brain activities is required for implementing brain–machine interface applications. Neural recording technique is one of the most vital tools to monitor and modulate brain activities. For the non-invasive measurement of neural signals simultaneously from multiple cells, extracellular neural recording has been performed using microelectrode arrays (MEAs) with the recording electrode sizes in the range of 20–60 μm in diameter when the typical size of a mammalian neuron is 10–20 μm in diameter. There are broadly two types of MEAs [1,2]: (1) passive MEAs with passive electrodes interfacing with neuron cells, which are connected to external amplifier systems for further signal processing [3]; (2) active MEAs with active electronic components such as field-effect transistors (FETs) or integrated circuits directly interfacing with the cells and amplifying the cellular signals [4]. Since the neural signal is recorded right at the cell–electrode interface, on-chip amplification and filtering with minimized parasitics and interferences would allow more reliable data recording and processing. Much higher electrode density is achievable by the integration of multiplexer for the multichannel signals [5]
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