Parylene-based encapsulated fluid MEMS sensors.

A new class of transducers based on a Parylene C encapsulated fluid element are introduced. These versatile units have thus far been explored as impedance-based contact sensors and electrolysis-based actuators for fine positioning of neural recording electrodes. These sensors may be fabricated on thin, flexible substrates which permits application on non-planar or three dimensional surfaces. Another interesting modality is the coupling of individual mechanically-responsive, impedance-based sensing elements distributed over a surface but interconnected through microfluidic channel networks in a manner that emulates mechanotransduction in natural biological systems. These fluidic elements offer interesting new possibilities in neural prosthetics.