Integrated SiO2 microtube-based electrical neuroprobe array

This paper presents a very thin silicon dioxide microtube electrode array, which has sub ten-micrometers in inner diameter, as a neural interface device with high signal-to-noise ratio and low invasiveness. The device was realized by using out-of-plane silicon dioxide microtube arrays fabricated from vapor-liquid-solid growth and microfabrication techniques. Here we report advantages of electrical properties of the microtube electrode such as low electrode impedance and high signal-to-noise ratio, compared to that of previous our silicon microprobe-based electrode arrays. In addition to the fundamental properties, we also demonstrated animal experiments to record evoked neural responses from the sciatic nerve of a rat through the microtube electrode.