A cochlear stimulation lead and method of making a curved electrode array are provided. The sensing apparatus may comprise a sensor pad, a sensing element disposed on the sensor pad for sensing capacitive current, at least one additional electronic element disposed on the sensor pad for providing information related to another parameter, and a switching mechanism. A programming data in the stimulator defines, for each of the at least three electrodes, individual stimulation pulses of varying polarity and at least one of amplitude, frequency, pulse width and pulse shape. This causes the gate dielectric to become permanently conductive.