A composite insulation structure for silicon-based planar neuroprobes

Silicon-based planar neuroprobes are composed of silicon substrate,conducting layer,and insulation layers of SiO 2 or SiN membrane.The insulation layer is very important because it affects many key parameters of neuprobes,like impedance,SNR(signal noise ratio),reliability,etc.Monolayer membrane of SiO 2 or SiN are not good choices for insulation layer,since defects and residual stress in these layers can induce bad passivation.In this paper a composite insulation structure is studied,with thermal SiO 2 as the lower insulation layer and with multilayer membrane composed of PECVD SiO 2 and SiN as the upper insulation layer.This structure not only solves the problem of residual stress but also ensures a good probe passivation.So it’s a good choice for insulation layer of neuroprobes.