Catheter-delivered 14 micrometer polyimide microelectrode array on a shape-memory silk fibroin scaffold that unfolds in cerebrospinal fluid and lies on the inner surface of the lateral ventricle. SIMIT and NeuroXess; recorded from the caudate head in Parkinsonian sheep for four weeks.
Independent, source-linked catalog sheet. Not a manufacturer-issued datasheet, regulatory decision or instructions for clinical use. Human evidence does not establish approval. Source-specific restrictions, conflicts and missing specifications are retained below.
A flexible electrode array that is folded into a clinical catheter, pushed into the lateral ventricle and unfolds there to contact the cerebrospinal-fluid-facing surface of deep nuclei such as the caudate head. It comes from Zhou Zhitao’s group at the State Key Laboratory of Sensor Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT, CAS), with Tao Hu’s team at Shanghai NeuroXess, and Huashan Hospital among the partners. Details are from the open-access Nature Communications paper (23 October 2025) and SIMIT’s Chinese release.
Identity
Field
Value and source scope
Device
Intraventricular interface: deformable microelectrode array (dMEA) on a silk fibroin scaffold [1][2]
Origin
SIMIT, with NeuroXess (脑虎科技) and Huashan Hospital, Fudan University [2]
Interface class
Planar flexible array on the ventricular surface; it does not penetrate the target nucleus [1][2]
Species studied
Parkinsonian sheep (MPTP model): intraoperative recording and a four-week free-moving study [1][2]
Regulatory status
Research device; no human use reported in the sources read [1]
Geometry and architecture
Field
Value and source scope
Electrode count
Total thickness
14 µm: dual-metal layers between three polyimide layers [1]
Site shape
Circular sites in a hemispherical-unfolding layout with rounded corners; 700 µm radius stated for the layout [1]
Conventional version
dMEA center 2.32 x 2.28 mm, 0.6 mm pad pitch, used for early experiments [1]
Small version
Flip-chip bonded, 160 µm pad pitch, dMEA center 1.27 x 1.27 mm, used for the long-term study [1]
Two shapes
Convex and concave variants, differing in the silk bending direction and fixation, for convex or concave surfaces [1]
Delivery
Folded into a catheter; unfolds when it leaves the catheter into cerebrospinal fluid; tested in a 1:1 3D-printed ventricle model [1]
Curvature adaptation
Attached to a 7 mm agarose surface and further conformed to 10 mm [1]
Materials and fabrication
Field
Value and source scope
Substrate
Polyimide, built as 3 µm base, 2 µm interlayer and top layers on an aluminum (1 µm) sacrificial layer on silicon [1]
Metals
Back pads Cr/Ni/Au 100/1000/5000 angstrom by e-beam evaporation and liftoff; vias and shield Cr/Au sputtered [1]
Via structure
Double-sided metal exposure with interlayer vias linking a back-side reflow-pad array to front-side recording sites [1]
Shielding
Coplanar Cr/Au in-plane shield on the interlayer polyimide (variant T1) against variant T0 without it; the release says the shield suppresses mains noise [1][2]
Silk mechanism
Compressed top and tensioned bottom give oriented crystallization, seen as arcs in 2D wide-angle X-ray diffraction; cerebrospinal fluid breaks the hydrogen bonds and the scaffold returns to its elastic state and unfolds [1]
Simulation
ABAQUS shell-element strain models; COMSOL electrostatic models of the shield [1]
Performance envelope
Field
Value and source scope
Electrical stability
Resistance drift within 5% after 100 stress cycles; impedance spectra unchanged by assembly [1]
Application demonstrated
Caudate head recording in Parkinsonian sheep: beta oscillations and response to levodopa with benserazide; an SVD-LDA model discriminated pathological states, with best channels at 90.3% and 89.9% [1][2]
Chronic follow-up
Four weeks free-moving in sheep with a roughly 18 Hz beta peak after model induction; CT showed no detectable displacement relative to the ventricle [1]
Limits
Channel count and the silk scaffold preparation steps were not read. Sheep only; the authors list integration with endoscopes and external ventricular drains as future work [1].