Transformation of medical grade silicone rubber under Nd:YAG and excimer laser irradiation: First step towards a new miniaturized nerve electrode fabrication process

XPS and μ-Raman study of nanosecond-laser processing of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)

“…(iii) The ablation depth increases with repetition rate when the excimer laser is applied at the same energy density and pulse number. (iv) An increase of Si in the EDS spectra was observed acquired on PDMS irradiated with Nd:YAG laser in comparison with those on native PDMS [10]. Laser treatment is used in order to facilitate selective metallization of the areas activated in this way [11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…The ablation by laser pulses is always a mixture of photochemical and photothermal reactions, where the ratio between them is a function of the polymer properties and the laser parameters [8]. The changes of the irradiated parts of the surface depend on the type of fluence source: UV-generated Nd:YAG laser or KrF-excimer laser [9,10]. Several common features and some specific differences can be summarized.…”

Laser Engineering of Surface Structures

“…These devices have potential use in nerve repair devices, nerve grafts, and prosthesis-nerve interfaces. Dupas-Bruzek et al used a KrF excimer laser and a frequency-quadrupled Nd:YAG laser for surface modification of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) [66]. They demonstrated that the laser processing conditions (e.g., the pulse duration) and the laser type determine the ablation depth, the chemical composition, and the surface morphology.…”

Prospects for Neuroprosthetics: Flexible Microelectrode Arrays with Polymer Conductors

“…A volume reduction between 5 % and 25% during sintering led to gaps between the conductor and the mold, which were filled with PDMS, thereby automatically insulating the tracks (Hu et al, 2006). A different approach was chosen by Dupas-Bruzek and coworkers, which was based on the UV (248 nm) laser-assisted activation of PDMS followed by the electroless deposition of Pt onto the laser-treated and thereby chemically modified surface areas (Dupas-Bruzek, Drean, et al, 2009;Dupas-Bruzek, Robbe, et al, 2009). Henle et al created a PDMS-Pt-PDMS sandwich by placing a 12.5 µm thin Pt film directly onto a partially cured PDMS carrier substrate, structuring it by an IR (1064 nm) laser, manually discarding excess material and spin-coating a second PDMS layer on top (Henle et al, 2011).…”