Diamond microelectrode arrays for in vitro neuronal recordings
- PDF / 634,631 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 90 Downloads / 209 Views
Research Letter
Diamond microelectrode arrays for in vitro neuronal recordings Matthew McDonald, Institute of Materials Research, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium Antonina Monaco, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Farnoosh Vahidpour, and Ken Haenen, Institute of Materials Research, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium Michele Giugliano, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium; Brain Mind Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK Milos Nesladek, Institute of Materials Research, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium; Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC), B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium Address all correspondence to M. McDonald at [email protected] and A. Monaco at [email protected] (Received 9 June 2017; accepted 26 July 2017)
Abstract A novel microfabrication technique for microelectrode arrays (MEAs) with a full diamond–cell interface is demonstrated. Boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond (BNCD) is used as a conductive electrode material on metal tracks insulated by intrinsic NCD. MEAs successfully recorded spontaneous electrical activity in rat primary cortical neuronal cultures. Patch-clamp measurements show no alterations to cell membrane passive properties or active firing response, for cell developing ex vivo on diamond. Impedance analysis revealed low impedance magnitude of BNCD electrodes, suitable for multi-unit neuronal recordings. Additionally, the impedance phase of the fabricated electrodes shows a high degree of capacitive coupling, ideal for neuron stimulation.
Introduction Diamond has become a material of increasing interest for electronic devices over the last decade, particularly as a biologic sensing platform, due to its many attractive material properties.[1] Nano-crystalline diamond (NCD) thin films can be grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on various substrates to fabricate functional devices using the standard microfabrication techniques. Diamond is a wide band gap semiconductor that can be doped to give metal-like conductivity, allowing development of biocompatible electrodes, which are electrochemically robust, giving an extremely wide chemical potential window.[2] Furthermore, the wide band gap of un-doped diamond allows it to be used as an insulating material in the voltage range of biologic signals. Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) were developed in the 1970s, and have become an indispensable tool in the field of electrophysiology for non-invasively investigating electrical activity of excitable cells, such as neurons and cardiomyocites, both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, MEAs enable the recording of spontaneous extracellular electric signals, allowing the interactions within populations of synaptically connected neurons to be studied, including their collective response to drugs, crucial for therapeutic drug-screening. MEAs can also be used
Data Loading...
