Coating Technology

Introduction

Microprobes for Life Science is proud to offer Platinum Group’s EPIC coating technology as a standard option for most of our single and multi-channel array systems. EPIC (or Electrodeposited Platinum Iridium Coating) employs a versatile and proprietary technique to coat the contacts of an electrode or array with a platinum-iridium alloy thin film with an extremely high-surface-area textured surface, modulating its electrochemical properties to provide superior stimulation and recording performance.

Pt Group Coatings, LLC

Features

  • Electrochemically deposited 60/40 wt% platinum-iridium thin film.
  • Nano-textured to provide extremely large effective surface area with no change in contact size, reducing impedance by up to an order of magnitude or more.
  • Deposition process uses no cytotoxic additives, and coating has been demonstrated to exhibit no significant increase in inflammatory response after over 6 months of in vivo implantation in cortex (vs uncoated)
  • Proven improvement to neural unit recording capability in terms of SNR and yield, as published in a peer-reviewed study (Cassar et al, Biomaterials 205 (2019) 120-132).
  • Stable and consistent coating impedance decrease for over 12 weeks in vivo.
  • Boosts stimulation performance and safety through the increase of effective charge injection density.
  • Compatible with all Microprobes for Life Science monopolar electrodes and many arrays including FMA, MEA, LMA, and MBA.

A - Sample GFAP section near electrode tip for animal.

B - Sample ED1 section near electrode tip for animal.

The impedance at 1kHz for coated and uncoated electrodes

B - The impedance at 1kHz for coated and uncoated electrodes

E - The cathodic charge capacity of the coated an uncoated electrodes calculated from the anodic to cathodic sweep of the cyclicl voltammetry

Average ED1

A - Average ED1

B - GFAP immunofluorescence intensity around the electrode-tissue interface, binned into fice 22 µm regions

C - Single frequency (1kHz) mean impedance Z in vivo