Design, fabrication, and characterization of a scalable tissue-engineered-electronic-nerve-interface (TEENI) device

Abstract

In this study, we describe a novel peripheral-nerve interface which makes use of highly flexible multi-electrode arrays that are integrated into hydrogel-based scaffolds to form a hybrid tissue-engineered electronic construct. This tissue-engineered electronic nerve interface (TEENI) is designed to be scalable to high channel counts using multiple polyimide-based “threads” that are evenly distributed through a volume of the nerve equal to its diameter times the distance between one or more nodes of Ranvier. Such scalability could greatly increase the precision and resolution of motor-control and sensory-feedback signals exchanged between amputees and advanced upper-limb prosthetic devices.