What is titanium nitride, and why are the Neuropixels sites made of it? · Lobeworks/17

A hard, gold-coloured ceramic of titanium and nitrogen that conducts electricity.

What is titanium nitride, and why are the Neuropixels sites made of it?

A hard, gold-coloured ceramic of titanium and nitrogen that conducts electricity. It is already used in chip making, as a barrier between metal layers, so the same sputtering machines deposit it on the probe. It grows in microscopic columns, giving a 12 by 12 µm site a real surface many times its drawn area, hence a large capacitance and a low impedance, and it is stable in the body.