A “nano lead” is defined as a submicron scale electrode for recording a neural activity from a single cell. The nano lead was fabricated with the technique of EB direct writing, DRIE, and FIB. The tiny recording site of the nano lead made very high electrode impedance at the low frequency, 100 Mohm at 100 Hz and 500 Mohm at DC. It caused the base line of the nerve potential unstable, but the IPSP signals of Aplysia were measured clearly.

Reference

Masaki Shuzo, Hidekazu Arai, Ryohei Kanzaki, Isao Shimoyama “Silicon Based Nano Lead for Single Cell Recording,” 18th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS '05), pp. 766-769, Miami, Fulorida, USA, January 30-February 3, 2005. [Proceedings]

Masaki Shuzo, Hidekazu Arai, Ryohei Kanzaki, Isao Shimoyama, “ A Nano Lead on a Force Sensing Cantilever for Bilateral Manipulation of a Single Cell,” The 13th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (Transducers '05), pp. 1720-1723, Seoul, Korea, Jun. 5-9, 2005. [Proceedings]