Raydiance Industry Applications

Medical Device Manufacturing

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:00:17 GMT

Medical device applications, such as drug delivery systems, guide wires, valves, needles, and stents increasingly demand smaller devices made with difficult to machine materials. As devices shrink in size, the greater is the need for athermal manufacturing processes.

Consider the impact of Raydiance ultrafast on the cardiovascular (CV) stent industry. CV stents are typically made of Nitinol or cobalt-chromium alloys. And the next generation of stents will likely be made of bioabsorbable materials like polylactic (PLA) or poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) acids. These are very difficult to machine, particularly when strut dimensions are 80 microns or less. Traditional processes employ tools that leave significant heat affected zones and burrs behind. These must be removed with costly, labor-intensive post processing steps. Raydiance machines without heat, therefore, post processing becomes a moot point. The breakthrough process increases yield and device integrity while reducing costs.

To learn more about complete ultrafast system solutions provided by our partner Rofin, see the sidebar at left.

Applications Gallery

Gold Stents and Markers

Gold has long been a notoriously difficult material to machine. It has, however, increasing value in the cardiovascular world, particularly due to its radiopacity and utility as a marker for stents made of materials less visible with X-rays. At left is a gold vascular stent machined with Raydiance Smart Light. Previous Next

Strut Detail in Gold Stent

A magnified image of a gold strut machined with Smart Light reveals no heat affected areas such as dross or re-cast. The strut is approximately 83 microns wide. Previous Next

Platinum

Like gold, platinum is becoming increasingly useful in cardiovascular stent applications. Also like gold, it is very difficult to machine with traditional methods. Here, we demonstrate the ability to cleanly and precisely machine this 90:10 alloy of platinum and iridium. Previous Next

Bioabsorbable Stents

The next great wave of innovation in the cardiovascular stent market will likely include polymeric, bioabsorbable stents. Given their low melting points, these polymers, typically made of polylactic acid (PLA) or polyglycolic acid (PGA),are very difficult to machine with traditional laser technology. Raydiance Smart Light, however, enables precise and totally athermal ablation of these sensitive materials. Previous Next

PLGA Stent Side View

At left is an edge view of a PLGA strut cut with the Raydiance platform. Note that there are no areas of melt or other heat affected zones. This part was not cleaned after machining, as is evident from the small piece of loose debris visible left of center. Previous Next

Industrial Laser Processing

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:16:28 GMT

Industrial laser processing comprises a wide range of ablative applications. For example, as the microelectronics industry continues to move towards smaller, more densely packed chips, the need increases for a precise and athermal means to scribe, dice or drill semiconductor materials and associated substrates.

Some of the challenges associated with current mechanical means for machining wafers include chipping, introduction of microcracks, and managing the debris from cutting. Further, to maximize the available wafer area, there is an ever-increasing demand for smaller “street widths” between component structures—a requirement for which mechanical means will ultimately fall short.

Raydiance’s ultrafast light provides a solution, because it ablates via optical breakdown, a photo-ionization process, rather than a thermal one. So, it can cut any material, whether semiconductor or dielectric substrate, without generating heat in the target. What’s more, an ultrafast beam can be focused to create micron or smaller features, as well as focused sub-surface to produce modified layers within the wafer.

If you would like to discuss a microelectronics or other processing application with us, or perhaps try a proof-of-concept experiment in our Applications Lab, click here to CONTACT US.

Defense

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:35:24 GMT

The Department of Defense sees great potential for Raydiance’s ultrafast platform to expand the nation’s homeland security and defense capabilities. When deployed in a lower energy, nonablative mode, Raydiance Smart Light provides a versatile means for remote detections of threats, such as hazardous chemical or biological substances.

Researchers at New Mexico State University, for example, are using Raydiance to do laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for materials interrogation. In addition, this non-destructive technique is being used in a U.S. Army program to distinguish healthy tissue from necrotic tissue, an effort to develop real-time pathology and surgical capabilities for the battlefield.

Finally, because Raydiance technology operates at an invisible but eye-safe wavelength, a host of distance detection systems, such as LADAR, are of keen interest to the military, as is its potential for secure communications.

Medical Therapies

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:31:40 GMT

When deployed at ablative energies, Smart Light can precisely cut both soft and hard tissues. For example, researchers at the University of Texas, Austin have been developing a surgical tool for laryngeal procedures. And within Raydiance’s own Applications Lab, engineers demonstrated the ability to athermally machine human teeth, as well as porcine heart and corneal tissue (see video at right).

This technology can be applied at nonablative energies as well, pulse energy regimes in which the light can be used to image or do real time materials analysis. With this capability, surgical procedures could be performed with a real time pathology. Precise surgical margins could be known during the procedure.

Finally, a number of groups have demonstrated the deactivation of deadly pathogens. Frank Tsen at Arizona State University (see sidebar at left) has been able to deactivate HIV with Raydiance Smart Light. And researchers in New Zealand have been able to effectively kill harmful bacterial contaminants from meat.

All of these applications speak to the versatility of this technology platform.

Download Application Spotlight on Soft Tissue Ablation

Biosciences

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:27:31 GMT

Raydiance’s ability to create transient cellular and molecular effects could radically transform the fields of genomics and proteomics with particular applications in energy production and environmental health.

Raydiance has been shown to stimulate gene transfection in plants. Stimulated gene transfection can be used to engineer the metabolism of specific microbes, facilitating the efficient production of bioenergy. Further, Raydiance stimulated gene transfection has the potential to allow scientists to engineer microbes to sequester carbon, reducing the environmental impact of fossil fuel combustion.

In the field of microfluidics, Smart Light provides a new tool for manufacturing tiny transparent, three-dimensional glass and polymeric lab-on-a-chip technology. Current methods for making these tiny circuits to analyze and manipulate fluids are extremely time consuming and expensive. Ultrafast light opens the door for innovation in this rapidly growing field.

Stainless Steel

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:38:45 GMT

Microfluidics Features in Quartz

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:46:16 GMT

Platinum

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:53:07 GMT

Gold

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:52:53 GMT

Bioabsorbable Stents

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:50:06 GMT

Raydiance Nitinol Stent

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:37:36 GMT

Nitinol

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:10:09 GMT

Nanostructured Silicon

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:34:08 GMT

Pig Cornea

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:25:25 GMT

Life Sciences Glass Needle

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:40:54 GMT

Bar Code in Quartz

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:40:30 GMT

Tungsten

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:35:45 GMT

Titanium

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:32:47 GMT