A new implantable capacitive electrode array for electrocorticography signal recording is developed with ferroelectric ceramic/polymer composite. This ultrathin and electrically safe capacitive electrode array is capable of attaching to the biological tissue conformably. The barium titanate/polyimide (BaTiO3 /PI) nanocomposite with high dielectric constant is successfully synthesized and employed as the ultrathin dielectric layer of the capacitive BaTiO3 /PI electrode array. The performance of the capacitive BaTiO3 /PI electrode array is evaluated by electrical characterization and 3D finite-element modeling. In vivo, neural experiments on the visual cortex of rats show the reliability of the capacitive BaTiO3 /PI electrode array. This work shows the potentials of capacitive BaTiO3 /PI electrode array in the field of brain/computer interfaces.
Keywords: barium titanate/polyimide (BaTiO3/PI); brain/computer interfaces (BCI); capacitive sensing; electrocorticography (ECoG); electrode arrays.
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