Advances in encapsulating elastically stretchable microelectrode arrays

Stretchable microelectrode arrays (SMEAs) that are fabricated on the compliant silicone poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) have potential applications for research on traumatic brain injury (TBI). Increasing the number of electrodes in the array improves the accuracy in assessing the effects of traumatic injury to cell tissue cultures. The currently available encapsulation process with a photopatternable silicone limits the electrode density on the array. The present research examines four factors in the encapsulation process: exposure dose, scattered and reflected light as well as hard bake time. Careful optimization of these four factors leads to a significant reduction of the minimum feature size of a contact via patterned into the encapsulation layer, thus enabling an increase of the electrode density on the array.