Microelectrode designs techniques

In the last 10 years, a lot of work has been done on the design of carbon microelectrodes, and several reviews have been devoted to this large amount of work (for reviews see Refs. 32 and 33). The purpose of this section is therefore only to review the techniques useful for the preparation of SECM tips based on the criteria presented earlier defining a good SECM tip. Some of our own work about the use of pyrolytic carbon electrodes as SECM probes will also be discussed. 

In view with microelectrode arrays F. Blair Simmons in 1965 performed the first multichannel auditory prosthesis stimulation study with five stainless steel electrodes insulated with Formvar inserted into the auditory nerve (and not into the ST) and emerging out from cochlea [27]. In recent years the interest in alternative stiff electrodes, to be inserted directly into the auditory nerve, has revived. In research conducted at University of Michigan, a batch-fabricated cochlear electrode array with stacked layers of parylene and metal was fabricated by silicon micromachining techniques. The 32-site array contained IrO (Iridium Oxide) stimulation sites with a centre-to-centre site spacing of 250 pm [28]. In the following sections the stiff and flexible electrode designs from the Delft University of the Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands are described with its micro-fabrication sequence done at The Delft Institute of Microsystems and Nanoelectronics (DIMES), TU Delft, The Netherlands. 

Electrochemical nucleation and phase growth Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy In-situ X-ray techniques Potentiostat design Microelectrodes... 

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