Towards laser fabrication of soft neural electrodes

Electronic devices define our everyday lives. They are often large, rigid, and brittle. Modern medical science has come so far as to start using miniature electronic devices to monitor many types of diseases. Especially, neurological disorders pose obstacles hard to overcome when treating them but it also motivates finding methods that allow for continuous monitoring. Implementing a small electronic device inside the human body adds requirements on the device to be stretchable, biocompatible, and more. Not only is the device limited by these factors, but also, current fabrication methods are not efficient for creating nanoscale versions for these types of devices. patterninglaser ablation is a growing field for cutting out and pattern nano-materialistic devices with high precision and good repeatability. This project is focused on using a laser engraving tool from metaquip on different substrates. This project is focused on the development of methods for laser fabrication of soft neural electrodes. The requiered steps are the alignment of samples to assure good precision when engraving it with the laser engraving tool, that also will be called \u93laserpatterner\u94, finding good parameters for cutting out devices and pattern conductors for said devices. On top of that, a linear force stretching will be used to characterize samples that were cut, in the form of strips, using the laserpatterner. The stretching behavior of strips consisting of the elastomer polydimethylsiloxane, which in turn will be the insulator for silver nanowires, is examined in the stretching setup. Parameter optimization is relevant in all experiments done in this project and lay the foundations for cutting and patterning silver nanowires devices. All factors included will eventually lead to a good method for fabricating soft neural electrode devices and this project is stepping stone towards that goal.Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet