We present for the first time the design, fabrication, and preliminary bench-top characterization of a high-density, polymer-based penetrating microelectrode array, developed for chronic, large-scale recording in the cortices and hippocampi of behaving rats. We present two architectures for these targeted brain regions, both featuring 512 Pt recording electrodes patterned front-and-back on micromachined eight-shank arrays of thin-film Parylene C. These devices represent an order of magnitude improvement in both number and density of recording electrodes compared with prior work on polymer-based microelectrode arrays. We present enabling advances in polymer micro-machining related to lithographic resolution and a new method for back-side patterning of electrodes. In vitro electrochemical data verifies suitable electrode function and surface properties. Finally, we describe next steps toward the implementation of these arrays in chronic, large-scale recording studies in free-moving animal models.
Keywords: Microelectrode array; Parylene; bioMEMS; brain machine interfaces; neural probe.