Manufacturing an electrode assembly having contoured electrode contact surfaces

A system for manufacturing an electrode assembly comprising:

• means for contouring the surface of at least one electrode contact, so as to increase an effective surface area of the electrode contact surface without increasing the geometric surface area of the electrode contact comprising means for contouring a biocompatible substrate to form at least one designated electrode contact area having indentations formed therein;
• means for depositing a protective coating on the contoured surface;
• means for molding a carrier member about the at least one electrode contact, wherein the surface of the at least one electrode contact is covered by a layer of the carrier member material;
• means for cutting the coating around each designated electrode contact area;
• and
• means for removing the protective coating and the layer of carrier member material from the surface of the at least one electrode contact, comprising means for removing the coating from the regions of the substrate outside each designated electrode contact area.

A method for manufacturing an electrode assembly, the method comprising:

• contouring the surface of at least one electrode contact, so as to increase an effective surface area of the electrode contact surface without increasing the geometric surface area of the electrode contact;
• depositing a protective coating on the contoured surface;
• molding a carrier member about the at least one electrode contact, wherein the surface of the at least one electrode contact is covered by a layer of the carrier member material;
• and
• removing the protective coating and the layer of carrier member material from the surface of the at least one electrode contact,
• wherein the contouring comprises:
• contouring the surface of at least one electrode contact such that the effective surface area per area unit of a center region of the at least one electrode contact is larger than the effective surface area per area unit of the of the region of the surface outside the center region.

A method for manufacturing an electrode assembly, the method comprising:

• contouring the surface of at least one electrode contact, so as to increase an effective surface area of the electrode contact surface without increasing the geometric surface area of the electrode contact;
• depositing a protective coating on the contoured surface;
• molding a carrier member about the at least one electrode contact, wherein the surface of the at least one electrode contact is covered by a layer of the carrier member material;
• and
• removing the protective coating and the layer of carrier member material from the surface of the at least one electrode contact,
• wherein the contouring the surface of the at least one electrode contact comprises one of the following:
• laser ablating the surface of at least one electrode contact, chemically etching the at least one electrode contact, applying electric discharges between an electrode discharge machine (EDM) cutting tool and the at least one electrode contact, and applying an acidic wash to the at least one electrode surface.

A system for manufacturing an electrode assembly comprising:

• means for contouring the surface of at least one electrode contact, so as to increase an effective surface area of the electrode contact surface without increasing the geometric surface area of the electrode contact;
• means for depositing a protective coating on the contoured surface;
• means for molding a carrier member about the at least one electrode contact, wherein the surface of the at least one electrode contact is covered by a layer of the carrier member material;
• and
• means for removing the protective coating and the layer of carrier member material from the surface of the at least one electrode contact,
• wherein the means for contouring comprises means for contouring a biocompatible substrate to form at least one designated electrode contact area, each designated electrode contact area having a plurality of indentations formed therein;
• the system further comprising:
• means for removing the coating from the regions of the substrate outside each designated electrode contact area.