Electrochemical stability and neural recording with sputtered ruthenium oxide electrodes subchronically in rat motor...

Objective. To investigate sputtered ruthenium oxide (RuO_x) as a low impedance coating for recording neural activity with intracortical microelectrode arrays (MEAs).Approach.RuO_xwas sputtered onto active sites of amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) MEAs and evaluated electrochemically and as a recording electrode coating over 6 weeks in rat motor cortex. The RuO_xwas 250 nm thick with a 200μm²geometric electrode surface area. We performed weekly electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements and single-unit action potential recordings.Main results.From 1 to 6 weeks post-implantation, we observed that median 1 kHz impedance decreased from 1.06 MΩ to 0.68 MΩ, median 1 Hz impedance decreased from 24.5 MΩ to 20.7 MΩ, and median 30 kHz impedance remained constant at 0.19 MΩ. Linear regression fits indicated that the 1 kHz and 1 Hz impedance exhibited small decreases whereas the 30 kHz impedance values had no discernible trend. The CV-based charge storage capacity (CSC_c) also exhibited consistency over time. The median CSC_cat 50 mV s^-1was 24.3 mC cm^-2on week 1 and 20.1 mC cm^-2at week 6. At 50 000 mV s^-1sweep rate, the median CSC_cwas 2.4 mC cm^-2at 1 week and 2.8 mC cm^-2at 6 weeks. Regressions for both sweep rates exhibited no significant slope deviations from zero. Neural recordings spanning 6 weeks demonstrated consistent single unit action potential with a 75% single unit active-electrode-yield over 6 weeks. MedianV_ppvalues on week 1 were 97.6µV and 105µV by week 6. The median and quartile signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was 12 at week 1 and 12 at week 6. There were no deviations from zero on the regressions for bothV_ppand SNR.Significance.The findings suggest that RuO_xis stable over subchronic implantation periods. Future research will explore long-term chronic performance and broader applications of RuO_xin neural interface devices.