How is a Neuropixels probe made, and by whom? · Lobeworks/17

Like a processor, never like a needle.

How is a Neuropixels probe made, and by whom?

Like a processor, never like a needle. imec in Leuven designs and makes it in its own line, a 130 nm silicon-on-insulator CMOS process with six metal layers: transistors, then insulators and aluminium tracks, each layer printed by photolithography with deep-ultraviolet light, then the titanium nitride sites sputtered on top, and finally the shank carved out of the wafer by deep reactive ion etching (done with SPTS etchers). ASML and its competitors make the lithography machines; they do not make chips, and a 130 nm node needs none of their newest extreme-ultraviolet tools.