Parylene-based flexible neural probes with PEDOT coated surface for brain stimulation and recording

Implantable neural prosthetics devices offer a promising opportunity for the restoration of lost functions in patients affected by brain or spinal cord injury, by providing the brain with a non-muscular channel able to link machines to the nervous system. Nevertheless current neural microelectrodes suffer from high initial impedance and low charge-transfer capacity because of their small-feature geometry (Abidian et al., 2010; Cui and Zhou, 2007). In this work we have developed PEDOT-modified neural probes based on flexible substrate capable to answer to the three critical requirements for neuroprosthetic device: efficiency, lifetime and biocompatibility. We propose a simple procedure for the fabrication of neural electrodes fully made of Parylene-C, followed by an electropolymerization of the active area with the conductive polymer PEDOT that is shown to greatly enhance the electrical performances of the device. In addition, the biocompatibility and the very high SNR exhibited during signal recording make our device suitable for long-term implantation.