Intracortical recording devices have the capability to bring functionality back to people that have lost it through neurological conditions and injuries. These devices have been
demonstrated in humans to control robotic limbs and enable brain-to-text communication. One
major drawback of current intracortical recording technology is the limited effective recording
lifetime of implant technology. To evaluate the lifetime of implants, durability studies are
performed on implant designs. Current in vitro accelerated aging methods use heated saline
baths intended to accelerate implant degradation using elevated temperatures and hydrogen
peroxide to simulate the reactive oxygen attack that implants undergo as a part of the foreign
body response.
The focus of this thesis will be on the development of a microfluidic platform for durability
evaluation of intracortical recording devices as well as a novel aging method that uses immune
cells to simulate this reactive species attack. This work describes a microfluidic chamber design
and fabrication process as well as techniques to control the reactive oxygen attack in the
microreactor. The degradation of neural probes aged in microfluidic chambers using the
saline/hydrogen peroxide method and the immune cell method is evaluated and compared to
in vivo device degradation. An acceleration factor for immune cell aging is proposed for the
acceleration of the reactive oxygen-induced polymer chain scission that occurs in vivo. Lastly,
this work presents a model for implant lifetime prediction that incorporates both biological and
material failure mechanisms using an equivalent circuit model for a neural implant.