This study involves implantable flexible polymer-based probes where these microelectrodes would then be used later for neural recordings in vivo, using rodents as test subjects. Neural electrodes are used for medical purposes to record action potential or local field potential that comes from brain activity. Flexible polymer-based probes are used in order to reduce the effects of glial scars that come from surgery, also the polymer has high mechanical strengths, high dielectric, and good biocompatibility. Fabricating and studying the effects of impedance is the key part of this experiment for data accusation of these electrodes. Impedance that has a good signal-to-noise ratio is the goal in this research. Later, the impedance data that is collected from the working electrode over a wide range of frequencies would then be fitted using a CH Instrument and/or ZSimWin to create an equivalent integrated circuit (IC) model that mimics the real experiment to get a deeper understanding on its electrical properties. For the preparation of polymer-based electrodes, Tungsten electrodes and Carbon electrodes were tested with Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution which completed the circuit. By having to test two different electrodes, Data acquisition was the next step to see which electrode give the best result.
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