Abstract
The microelectromechanical systems process including cutting, isotropic wet-etching and sputtering was used to fabricate a pyramid micro-needle electrode, which could be applied in long-term electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement. A penetrating testing and comfort survey was presented to optimize the parameters of applying force and penetrating depth in order to make user comfort, safe and free of pain and bleeding. To investigate the performance of the micro-needle electrode, three micro-needle electrodes with different arrays were deployed to perform skin–electrode contact impedance experiments. Moreover, the impedances in time domain were measured to verify the feasibility of long time measurement. At last, EEG signals were recorded directly by three pairs of standard wet/micro-needle electrodes and the power spectrum density (PSD) was presented between standard wet electrode and micro-needle electrode to estimate signal quality. Based on the results of EEG signals and the PSD, the micro-needle electrode can be as a biopotential electrode for recording EEG with low skin–electrode contact impedance.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51035005, 61176104), the Science and Technology Department of Shanghai (No. 11JC1405700, 11DZ2290203), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (2009) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Innovation Fund for Postgraduates.
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Wang, LF., Liu, JQ., Yan, XX. et al. A MEMS-based pyramid micro-needle electrode for long-term EEG measurement. Microsyst Technol 19, 269–276 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-012-1638-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-012-1638-2