Neurotech Pub Connectors, Cans, And Coatings
Dec 23, 2020
Stuart Cogan, a biomedical engineering professor focused on electrode materials and encapsulation; Thomas Stieglitz, a microtechnology professor working on polyimide neural interfaces; Loren Rieth, an associate professor known for the Utah array; Vanessa Tolosa, a neurotech practitioner expert in flexible polymer devices. They dig into implant packaging, hermetic vs thin-film coatings, feed-throughs and scaling limits, and testing strategies for long-term neural implants.
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Create Test Structures To Measure Encapsulation
- Build and use dedicated test structures that isolate encapsulation aging from electrode site leakage so you can measure true barrier performance.
- Loren recommends interdigitated and electrode-only test chips to separate encapsulation failure from low‑impedance electrode paths.
Make Devices Small Enough To Reduce Foreign Body Response
- Tiny devices provoke a smaller foreign body response, so ultrathin thin‑film implants can reduce adverse tissue reactions if manufactured cleanly.
- Stuart Cogan highlights that for very small probes the encapsulation effectively becomes the device itself.
Put Electronics Next To Electrodes And Go Wireless
- Aim to colocate electronics with electrodes and move wireless to eliminate transcranial cables and thousands of feedthroughs.
- Stuart suggests shrinking electronics and adopting wireless links to scale channel count without massive connectors.
