Research article

Simulation and Measurement of Neuroelectrodes Characteristics with Integrated High Aspect Ratio Nano Structures

  • Received: 02 April 2015 Accepted: 25 June 2015 Published: 01 July 2015
  • Improving the interface between electrodes and neurons has been the focus of research for the last decade. Neuroelectrodes should show small geometrical surface area and low impedance for measuring and high charge injection capacities for stimulation. Increasing the electrochemically active surface area by using nanoporous electrode material or by integrating nanostructures onto planar electrodes is a common approach to improve this interface. In this paper a simulation approach for neuro electrodes' characteristics with integrated high aspect ratio nano structures based on a point-contact-model is presented. The results are compared with experimental findings conducted with real nanostructured microelectrodes. In particular, effects of carbon nanotubes and gold nanowires integrated onto microelectrodes are described. Simulated and measured impedance properties are presented and its effects onto the transfer function between the neural membrane potential and the amplifier output signal are studied based on the point-contact-model. Simulations show, in good agreement with experimental results, that electrode impedances can be dramatically reduced by the integration of high aspect ratio nanostructures such as gold nanowires and carbon nanotubes. This lowers thermal noise and improves the signal-to-noise ratio for measuring electrodes. It also may increase the adhesion of cells to the substrate and thus increase measurable signal amplitudes.

    Citation: Christoph Nick, Helmut F. Schlaak, Christiane Thielemann. Simulation and Measurement of Neuroelectrodes Characteristics with Integrated High Aspect Ratio Nano Structures[J]. AIMS Materials Science, 2015, 2(3): 189-202. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2015.3.189

    Related Papers:

  • Improving the interface between electrodes and neurons has been the focus of research for the last decade. Neuroelectrodes should show small geometrical surface area and low impedance for measuring and high charge injection capacities for stimulation. Increasing the electrochemically active surface area by using nanoporous electrode material or by integrating nanostructures onto planar electrodes is a common approach to improve this interface. In this paper a simulation approach for neuro electrodes' characteristics with integrated high aspect ratio nano structures based on a point-contact-model is presented. The results are compared with experimental findings conducted with real nanostructured microelectrodes. In particular, effects of carbon nanotubes and gold nanowires integrated onto microelectrodes are described. Simulated and measured impedance properties are presented and its effects onto the transfer function between the neural membrane potential and the amplifier output signal are studied based on the point-contact-model. Simulations show, in good agreement with experimental results, that electrode impedances can be dramatically reduced by the integration of high aspect ratio nanostructures such as gold nanowires and carbon nanotubes. This lowers thermal noise and improves the signal-to-noise ratio for measuring electrodes. It also may increase the adhesion of cells to the substrate and thus increase measurable signal amplitudes.


    加载中
    [1] Wilson B, Dorman M (2008) Cochlear implants: A remarkable past and a brilliant future. Hearing Res 242: 3-21. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2008.06.005
    [2] Zrenner E (2013) Fighting Blindness with Microelectronics. Sci Transl Med 5(210): 210ps16.
    [3] Perlmutter J, Mink J (2006) Deep brain stimulation. Annu Rev Neurosci 29: 229-257. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.29.051605.112824
    [4] Priori A, Foffani G, Rossi L, et al. (2012) Adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) controlled by local field potential oscillations. Exp Neurol 245: 77-86.
    [5] Gallentine W, Mikati M (2009) Intraoperative electrocorticography and cortical stimulation in children. J Clin Neurophysiol 26: 95-108. doi: 10.1097/WNP.0b013e3181a0339d
    [6] Keefer E, Botterman B, Romero M, et al. (2008) Carbon nanotube coating improves neuronal recordings. Nat Nanotechnol 3: 434-439. doi: 10.1038/nnano.2008.174
    [7] Ben-Jacob E, Hanein Y (2008) Carbon nanotube micro-electrodes for neuronal interfacing. J Mater Chem 18: 5181-5186. doi: 10.1039/b805878b
    [8] Nick C, Joshi R, Schneider J, et al. (2012) Three-dimensional carbon nanotube electrodes for extracellular recording of cardiac myocytes. Biointerphases 7: 58-64.
    [9] Brüggemann D, Wolfrum B, Maybeck V, et al. (2011) Nanostructured gold microelectrodes for extracellular recording from electrogenic cells. Nanotechnology 22: 265104. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/22/26/265104
    [10] Nick C, Quednau S, Sarwar R, et al. (2014) High Aspect Ratio Gold Nanopillars on Microelectrodes for Neural Interfaces. Microsyst Technol 20: 1849-1857. doi: 10.1007/s00542-013-1958-x
    [11] Kim D, Abidian M, Martin D (2004) Conducting Polymers Grown in Hydrogel Scaffolds Coated on Neural Prosthetic Devices. J Biomed Mater Res A 71: 577-585.
    [12] Poppendieck W, Hoffmann K-P (2009) In 4th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering Springer: 2409-2412.
    [13] Potter S, DeMarse T (2001) A new approach to neural cell culture for long-term studies. J Neurosci Methods 110: 17-24. doi: 10.1016/S0165-0270(01)00412-5
    [14] Potter S (2001) Distributed processing in cultured neuronal networks In M.A.L. Nicoleleis, (ed.), Advances in Neural Population Coding (Progress in Brain Research), 130: 49-62. doi: 10.1016/S0079-6123(01)30005-5
    [15] Hoogerwerf A, Wise K (1994) A Three-Dimensional Microelectrode Array for Chronic Neural Recording. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 41: 1136-1146. doi: 10.1109/10.335862
    [16] Nordhausen C, Maynard E, Normann R (1996) Single unit recording capabilities of a 100 microelectrode array. Brain Res 726: 129-140. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(96)00321-6
    [17] Gabay T, Ben-David M, Kalifa I, et al. (2007) Electro-chemical and biological properties of carbon nanotube based multi-electrode arrays. Nanotechnology 18: 035201-035206. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/18/3/035201
    [18] Fuchsberger K, Le Goff A, Gerwig R, et al. (2010) Integration of Carbon Nanotubes in Microelectrode Arrays by Microcontact Printing and Electropolymerization for Neurostimulation and Biosensing Applications. In 7th Meeting on Substrate-Integrated Microelectrodes, Reutlingen, Germany; 267-268.
    [19] Gabriel G, Gomez-Martinez R, Villa R (2008) Single walled carbon nanotubes deposited on surface electrodes to improve interface impedance. Physiol Meas 29: 203-212. doi: 10.1088/0967-3334/29/6/S18
    [20] Nick C, Thielemann C (2014) Are Carbon Nanotube Microelectrodes Manufactured from Dispersion Stable Enough for Neural Interfaces? Bio Nano Sci 4: 216-225.
    [21] Bauer L, Birenbaum N, Meyer G (2004) Biological applications of high aspect ratio nanoparticles. J Mater Chem 14: 517-526. doi: 10.1039/b312655b
    [22] Wang H-W, Shieh C-F, Chen H-Y, et al. (2006) Standing [111] gold nanotube to nanorod arrays via template growth. Nanotechnology 17: 2689-2694. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/17/10/041
    [23] Pancrazio J, Whelan J, Borkholder D, et al. (1999) Development and application of cell-based biosensors. Ann Biomed Eng 27: 697-711. doi: 10.1114/1.225
    [24] Joye N, Schmid A, Leblebici Y (2008) An electrical model of the cell-electrode interface for high-density microelectrode arrays. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: 559-562.
    [25] Sessler F, Hsu F, Felder T, et al. (1998) Effects of ethanol on rat so mato sensory cortical neurons. Brain Res 804: 266-274. doi: 10.1016/S0006-8993(98)00680-5
    [26] Massobrio P, Massobrio G, Martinoia S (2007) Multi-program approach for simulating recorded extracellular signals generated by neurons coupled to microelectrode arrays. Neurocomputing 70: 2467-2476. doi: 10.1016/j.neucom.2006.09.008
    [27] Gabay T (2009) Carbon Nanotube Microelectrode Arrays for Neuronal Patterning and Recording (PhD thesis) Tel-Aviv University.
    [28] Bauerdick S, Burkhardt C, Kern D, et al. (2003) Substrate-Integrated Microelectodes with Improved Charge Transfer Capacity by 3-Dimensional Micro-Fabrication. Biomed Microdevices 5: 93-99. doi: 10.1023/A:1024526626016
    [29] Sorkin R, Gabay T, Blinder P, et al. (2006) Compact self-wiring in cultured neural networks. J Neural Eng 3: 95-101. doi: 10.1088/1741-2560/3/2/003
    [30] Sorkin R, Greenbaum A, David-Pur M, et al. (2009) Process entanglement as a neuronal anchorage mechanism to rough surfaces. Nanotechnology 20: 015101. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/20/1/015101
    [31] CNT Expertise Centre (2009) Available from: http://www.nanocyl.com/en/CNT-Expertise-Centre/Carbon-Nanotubes.
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2015 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(5933) PDF downloads(1029) Cited by(2)

Article outline

Figures and Tables

Figures(10)  /  Tables(3)

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog