›› 2009, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (1): 1-6.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0529-1356.2009.01.001

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Neurochip’s advancement research: neurons and silicon get intimate by microcontact printing

  

  1. Beijing Institute for Neuroscience, Capital Medical University, Beijing Center of Neural Regeneration and Repairing, Key Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Diseases of the Ministry of Education, Beijing 100069, China
  • Received:2008-10-13 Revised:2008-11-13 Online:2009-01-06
  • Contact: XU Qun-yuan

Abstract: Neurochip is a kind of biochip by using microelectrode array to achieve information transmission between neural cells and electronic devices, as well as an interface of artificial neural compensation device. By connecting living neurons to silicon circuits, long-term recording and stimulating are completed non-invasively. At present in this field, the key point is how to make neural cells adhere on the chips, direct cell bodies to electrodes, establish the communication links and promote the signal to noise ratio between the neuron and substrate. Micro-fabrication technology can be expected to achieve this goal in which microcontact printing technique is the most widely used. By the application of polydimethylsiloxane as stamps, biological macromolecules or organic polymer as “inks", the fine patterns are transferred to the silicon from the template in order to achieve surface modification of materials and structural micro-fabrication. In this review, we introduce the advancement of neural chip research briefly, describe the current research of microcontact printing technology in detail and discuss the application of this approach in the field of neural chip nowadays.

Key words: Neural cell, Polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS), Microcontact printing, Neurochip

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