A hybrid silicon-parylene neural probe with locally flexible regions

This paper reports the development of flexible neural probes based on hybrid silicon-parylene structures. The chronic tissue response is a major obstacle for the clinical application of neural probes. Mechanical mismatch is considered to be one of the causes of chronic tissue response of implanted neural probes. Polymer probes have been developed to reduce the mechanical mismatch. However, the implantation of polymer probes is challenging. Here, we have proposed a novel hybrid silicon-parylene probe with locally flexible regions to address the mechanical mismatch without the implanting difficulty of traditional polymer probes. Prototypes have been developed and the buckling force has been experimentally measured. Penetrating experiments in agarose gel have been successfully demonstrated. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.