Micromachined electrodes for high density neural stimulation systems

Author

Hung, A. ; Zhou, D. ; Greenberg, R. ; Judy, J.W.

Author_Institution

Biomed. Eng. IDP, California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

24-24 Jan. 2002

Firstpage

56

Lastpage

59

Abstract

High-resolution retinal prosthetic systems require high-density stimulation electrodes to restore the vision of blind patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. Micromachining the surface of electrodes to obtain high aspect ratio features can tremendously increase the effective area of the electrode. A unique process has been developed to obtain high aspect ratio structures by plating on the sidewall of recently developed and insufficiently rinsed resist. A quadrupling of the effective area of the electrode surface has been achieved with modest micromachining and should translate into a similar improvement in visual resolution.

Keywords

eye; microelectrodes; micromachining; neuromuscular stimulation; prosthetics; sensory aids; blind patients; electrode effective area; electrode surface area quadrupling; high aspect ratio features; high density neural stimulation systems; high-resolution retinal prosthetic systems; insufficiently rinsed resist plating; macular degeneration; micromachined electrodes; retinitis pigmentosa; surface micromachining; vision restoration; visual resolution; Biomedical electrodes; Biomedical engineering; Micromachining; Neural prosthesis; Photoreceptors; Pigmentation; Platinum; Prosthetics; Retina; Visual prosthesis;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2002. The Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV, USA

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7185-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2002.984082

Filename

984082