Transistor needle chip for recording in brain tissue

Abstract

We report on a proof-of-principle experiment for the direct interfacing of transistors with intact brain tissue. A transistor needle chip (TNC) with a TiO2 surface is fabricated from a silicon-on-insulator wafer and impaled into an acute brain slice cut from hippocampus of the rat. While stimulating the Schaffer collateral, a local field potential is recorded in stratum radiatum of the CA1 region with field-effect transistors in the central part of the slice where the tissue is not damaged by the cutting process. After the impalement, the signal amplitude is small. Within an hour, it increases to a stable level around -2 mV as is recorded with a conventional micropipette electrode. The recovery indicates that the tissue is able to adapt to the impaled chip. Upon repeated impalements at the same position, the large signal is observed without delay. A profile of the transistor signal across the slice is due to the boundary conditions of a brain slice with both surfaces held near ground potential. The experiments with the TNC prototype are a basis for the development of silicon needle chips with a large multi-transistor array (MTA) for applications in brain-computer interfacing. © 2011 The Author(s).