Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, 30627 Hannover, Germany.
BioMaterial Engineering, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Carl Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Nov 19;20(22):6614. doi: 10.3390/s20226614.
Current personalized treatment of neurological diseases is limited by availability of appropriate manufacturing methods suitable for long term sensors for neural electrical activities in the brain. An additive manufacturing process for polymer-based biocompatible neural sensors for chronic application towards individualized implants is here presented. To process thermal crosslinking polymers, the developed extrusion process enables, in combination with an infrared (IR)-Laser, accelerated curing directly after passing the outlet of the nozzle. As a result, no additional curing steps are necessary during the build-up. Furthermore, the minimal structure size can be achieved using the laser and, in combination with the extrusion parameters, provide structural resolutions desired. Active implant components fabricated using biocompatible materials for both conductive pathways and insulating cladding keep their biocompatible properties even after the additive manufacturing process. In addition, first characterization of the electric properties in terms of impedance towards application in neural tissues are shown. The printing toolkit developed enables processing of low-viscous, flexible polymeric thermal curing materials for fabrication of individualized neural implants.
当前，神经疾病的个性化治疗受到合适的制造方法的限制，这些方法适合长期用于大脑神经电活动的传感器。本文提出了一种用于聚合物基生物相容神经传感器的增材制造工艺，可用于慢性应用的个体化植入物。为了处理热交联聚合物，所开发的挤出工艺与红外（IR）激光相结合，可在喷嘴出口后直接加速固化。因此，在构建过程中不需要额外的固化步骤。此外，最小的结构尺寸可以使用激光实现，并且与挤出参数相结合，可以提供所需的结构分辨率。使用生物相容性材料制造的有源植入组件，既用于导电通路又用于绝缘包层，即使在增材制造过程后仍保持其生物相容性。此外，还展示了针对神经组织应用的阻抗方面的电性能的首次特性。所开发的打印工具包可用于处理低粘度、柔性热固化聚合物材料，用于制造个体化神经植入物。
