Dr Edward Tarte BSc, PhD, CPhys, FInstP

Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering
Senior Lecturer
Deputy Head of Education

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 414 4301
Email: e.tarte@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Edward Tarte is a Senior Lecturer in The School of Engineering.

Edward has published over 80 research papers in scientific journals and is has been a co-inventor for two patents. These relate to the development of novel electronic devices and sensors and their applications in neuroscience. He has been funded by The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, The European Union under Frameworks 5 and 7, the Royal Society and the UK Ministry of Defence.

He is interested in the application of the ideas and techniques of electrical engineering to biomedical science. In particular, he has used microfabrication and nanofabrication techniques to construct a number of devices designed to detect bioelectric signals. These sensors have applications in basic neuroscience and the development of prosthetic devices. He is also interested in the more general physics and applications of microfabricated sensors and actuators.

Qualifications

Fellow of Higher Education Academy 2012
Fellow of Institute of Physics 2008
PhD in Physics, University of Cambridge, 1993
BSc (Hons) in Physics, University of Bristol, 1988

Biography

Edward Tarte graduated in 1988 with an BSc(Hons) in Physics from the University of Bristol. He went on to study for a PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge, during which he investigated electric current transport across the interface between noble metals and the oxide superconductor YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x.

Between 1992 and 1995 he was a Post-Doc in the Cambridge Materials Science and Metallurgy department working on Josephson junctions based on oxide superconductors.

In 1995 he was appointed as a Senior Assistant in Research In the Cambridge Physics department, where he continued to work on oxide Josephson devices with a focus on grain boundary junctions. During this period, he also began working on Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) and devices based on superconductor/ferroelectric heterostructures.

In 2000 he was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship in the Materials Department in Cambridge. During this period, he investigated the use of SQUID sensors to detect neuronal activity in-vitro. This involved a close collaboration with colleagues at Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg Sweden. In parallel, he maintained an interest in the Josephson effect in a range of systems, including the newly discovered MgB₂and devices with ferromagnetic barriers.

Edward moved to Birmingham in 2005 as a University Research Fellow, where his interest in the detection of bioelectric phenomena developed into a major part of his research program. His team developed an electrical interface for the peripheral nervous system, in collaboration with colleagues in Cambridge and King’s College in London, which has been patented. Other ways of applying the same technology to bioelectric phenomena are being developed as well as the use of nanofabrication techniques to improve the performance of such devices. In parallel, he has maintained an interest in superconducting and oxide based devices with applications as quantum devices and as actuators.

In 2014 he became Head of Education in the School of Electronic Electrical and Systems Engineering and in 2016 Deputy Head of Education of the new School of Engineering.

Teaching

Teaching Programmes

1^st Year: “Techniques of Analysis and Modelling” (Engineering Mathematics)
2^nd Year: “Electronic circuits and devices” (Analogue Electronics)
3^rd Year BEng projects
4^th Year MEng projects
MSc projects

Postgraduate supervision

Edward is interested in supervising research students in a number of areas of biomedical electrical engineering.

Research

RESEARCH THEMES

Microfabrication, device development for electrophysiology, thin film growth, nanotechnology.

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Biomedical Electrical Engineering

Over the last 10 years Edward has been developing sensors and systems which can be used to detect bioelectric signals. This began with the use of SQUIDs to detect biomagnetic fields, but is now centred on microfabricated electrode arrays. These arrays are based on polymeric materials which are processed using microfabrication techniques. Polymers have the advantage over materials such as silicon of a lower Young’s modulus, which results in more flexible and softer devices, better matched to the mechanical properties of nervous tissue. The flexibility makes it possible to construct devices such as the Spiral Peripheral Nerve Interface (SPNI) which is fabricated using photolithography as a flat structure on a silicon handle wafer and then rolled to fit the three dimensional structure of a nerve. This device contains channels, into which regenerating nerve fibres grow, with electrodes in the base. These channels not only guide the fibres past the electrodes, the confinement of the extracellular fluid causes the voltage detected by the electrodes to be enhanced. These technologies are being applied to a range of other applications in neuroscience and electrophysiology. We are also interested in using nanotechnology to enhance the performance of these devices by nanotexturing the surfaces of the electrodes and other areas of the devices, to decrease electrochemical impedance and enhance biocompatibility. In addition, we are developing finite element models for the electrodynamic behaviour of bioelectric sources.

Other activities

Member of EPSRC Review College
Co-author of European Roadmap on Superconductive Electronics.
Gives talks to school groups on Electricity and Magnetism

Publications

Hadis, M.A., Cooper, P.R., Milward, M.R., Gorecki, P., Tarte, E., Churm, J., and Palin, W.M., The effect of UV-Vis to near-infrared light on the biological response of human dental pulp cells,(2015), in Mechanisms for Low-Light Therapy X, M.R. Hamblin, J.D. Carroll, and P. Arany, Editors.

2. Barrett, R., Benmerah, S., Frommhold, A., and Tarte, E. Spiral peripheral nerve interface; updated fabrication process of the regenerative implant. (2013). in Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2013 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE.

3. Vasta, G., Jackson, T.J., and Tarte, E., Electrical properties of BaTiO3 based ferroelectric capacitors grown on oxide sacrificial layers for micro-cantilevers applications, (2012). Thin Solid Films. 520(7): p. 3071-3078.

4. Frommhold, A., Yang, D.X., Manyam, J., Manickam, M., Tarte, E., Preece, J.A., Palmer, R.E., and Robinson, A.P.G. Chemically amplified fullerene resists, spin-on fullerene hardmasks and high aspect ratio etching. (2012). in Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO), 2012 12th IEEE Conference on.

5. Frommhold, A., Robinson, A.P.G., and Tarte, E., High aspect ratio silicon and polyimide nanopillars by combination of nanosphere lithography and intermediate mask pattern transfer, (2012). Microelectronic Engineering. 99(0): p. 43-49.

6. FitzGerald, J.J., Lago, N., Benmerah, S., Serra, J., Watling, C.P., Cameron, R.E., Tarte, E., Lacour, S.P., McMahon, S.B., and Fawcett, J.W., A regenerative microchannel neural interface for recording from and stimulating peripheral axons in vivo, (2012). Journal of Neural Engineering. 9(1): p. 016010.

7. Vasta, G., Jackson, T.J., Bowen, J., and Tarte, E.J. New Multilayer Architectures for Piezoelectric BaTiO3 Cantilever Systems. (2011). in MRS Spring meeting 2011. San Francisco.

8. Vasta, G., Jackson, T., Frommhold, A., Bowen, J., and Tarte, E., Residual stress analysis of all perovskite oxide cantilevers, (2011). Journal of Electroceramics: p. 1-13.

9. Tarte, E.J., FitzGerald, J.J., Lago, N., Benmerah, S., Serra, J., Watling, C.P., Cameron, R.E., Lacour, S.P., McMahon, S.B., and Fawcett, J.W. The Spiral Peripheral Nerve Interface: Design, Fabrication and Performance. (2011). in 5th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering. Budapest: Springer.

10. Frommhold, A. and Tarte, E., Effect of film structure on the electrochemical properties of gold electrodes for neural implants, (2011). Electrochimica Acta. 56(17): p. 6001-6007.

11. Watling, C.P., Lago, N., Benmerah, S., FitzGerald, J.J., Tarte, E., McMahon, S., Lacour, S.P., and Cameron, R.E., Novel use of X-ray micro computed tomography to image rat sciatic nerve and integration into scaffold, (2010). Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 188(1): p. 39-44.

12. Lacour, S.P., Benmerah, S., Tarte, E., FitzGerald, J., Serra, J., McMahon, S., Fawcett, J., Graudejus, O., Yu, Z., and Morrison, B., Flexible and stretchable micro-electrodes for in vitro and in vivo neural interfaces, (2010). Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing. 48(10): p. 945-954.

13. Frommhold, A. and Tarte, E., Electrochemical Interface Modification Through Large Area Surface Nanostructuring, (2010). Sensor Letters. 8(3): p. 470-475.

14. Anders, S., Blamire, M.G., Buchholz, F.I., Crete, D.G., Cristiano, R., Febvre, P., Fritzsch, L., Herr, A., Il'ichev, E., Kohlmann, J., Kunert, J., Meyer, H.G., Niemeyer, J., Ortlepp, T., Rogalla, H., Schurig, T., Siegel, M., Stolz, R., Tarte, E., ter Brake, H.J.M., Toepfer, H., Villegier, J.C., Zagoskin, A.M., and Zorin, A.B., European roadmap on superconductive electronics - status and perspectives, (2010). Physica C-Superconductivity and Its Applications. 470(23-24): p. 2079-2126.

15. Magnelind, P., Winkler, D., Hanse, E., and Tarte, E., Magnetophysiology of Brain Slices Using an HTS SQUID Magnetometer System,(2009), in Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics, V. In, P. Longhini, and A. Palacios, Editors. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 323-330.

16. Lacour, S.P., Fitzgerald, J.J., Lago, N., Tarte, E., McMahon, S., and Fawcett, J., Long Micro-Channel Electrode Arrays: A Novel Type of Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Interface, (2009). IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 17(5): p. 454-460.

17. Benmerah, S., Lacour, S.P., and Tarte, E., Design and fabrication of neural implant with thick microchannels based on flexible polymeric materials, (2009). Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009: p. 6400-3.

18. Sinha, U., Sinha, A., and Tarte, E.J., On transmission line resonances in high T(C) dc SQUIDs, (2008). Superconductor Science & Technology. 21(8).

19. Lacour, S.P., Atta, R., FitzGerald, J.J., Blamire, M., Tarte, E., and Fawcett, J., Polyimide micro-channel arrays for peripheral nerve regenerative implants, (2008). Sensors and Actuators a-Physical. 147(2): p. 456-463.

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