MEMS-Actuated Carbon Fiber Microelectrode for Neural Recording

Microwire and microelectrode arrays used for cortical neural recording typically consist of tens to hundreds of recording sites, but often only a fraction of these sites are in close enough proximity to firing neurons to record single-unit activity. Recent work has demonstrated precise, depth-controllable mechanisms for the insertion of single neural recording electrodes, but these methods are mostly only capable of inserting electrodes which elicit an adverse biological response. We present an electrostatic-based actuator capable of inserting individual carbon fiber microelectrodes which elicit minimal to no adverse biological response. The device is shown to insert a carbon fiber recording electrode into an agar brain phantom and can record an artificial neural signal in saline. This technique provides a platform generalizable to many microwire-style recording electrodes.