A method for fabrication of a piece including, superposing an electrically insulating layer including a first orifice, an additional layer including a first aperture, an intermediate layer including a first hole, and a base layer surmounted by a base motif, depositing a metal layer, so that at the end of this step, the metal layer forms a shell covering electrically conductive walls of the base motif, of the first orifice, of the first aperture and of the first hole, and includes a lateral area resting on the insulating layer, dissolving the insulating layer, coating the metal or alloy layer with a volume formed by a base material of the piece, so that the volume conforms to the shapes of the metal layer.

An electroplating method that includes: a) contacting a first substrate with a first article, which includes a substrate and a conformable mask disposed in a pattern on the substrate; b) electroplating a first metal from a source of metal ions onto the first substrate in a first pattern, the first pattern corresponding to the complement of the conformable mask pattern; and c) removing the first article from the first substrate, is disclosed. Electroplating articles and electroplating apparatus are also disclosed.

The problems of high costs and lack of flexibility in microelectrode arrays (MEAs) is addressed by the inexpensive flexible MEA systems and methods for manufacturing them presented herein. The MEA systems described herein are generally formed from a flexible substrate such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The flexible substrate generally comprises a series of wells and channels patterned therein. The wells and channels are filled with a conductive flexible material such as a mixture of PDMS and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form sets of microelectrodes, microelectrode leads, and contact pads therein. The resulting MEA systems may be substantially more flexible and less expensive than prior MEA systems. The MEA systems presented herein may be manufactured using a variety of soft lithography techniques described herein.