Heart Valve Delivery Catheter Surface Texturing Without Polymer Damage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Inflatable medical devices face challenges such as overheating during laser modification, which disorients polymer chains, reducing the device's strength, and issues with inconsistent wall thickness leading to unpredictable burst pressures and tissue damage.
Innovation Solution
The use of low heat ultrashort laser pulses to modify the surface of inflatable devices without significant thermal effects, preserving the polymer chain network morphology and allowing for customized features like recessions to enhance friction and bonding, while maintaining consistent wall thickness for predictable performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If conventional laser modification is used to create surface features on inflatable devices, then customized surface features can be achieved, but the polymer chains become disoriented and thermal effects reduce the device's strength
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies ultrashort laser pulses with duration of 10^-12 to 10^-15 seconds, representing a dramatic change in the time parameter of laser application. This ultrashort duration prevents thermal diffusion to surrounding polymer chains, creating surface features while preserving the mechanical integrity and strength of the device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses pulsed laser action rather than continuous laser application. The periodic ultrashort pulses deliver energy in discrete, controlled increments that modify the surface without causing cumulative thermal damage or polymer chain disorientation, thereby maintaining device strength.
2Force
If laser modification is used to create surface features, then bonding and friction can be enhanced, but thermal effects can cause inconsistent wall thickness and unpredictable burst pressures
Solution Approach 1:
By changing the temporal parameter of laser application to ultrashort pulses, the patent achieves surface modification that enhances bonding and friction forces while avoiding the thermal effects that cause wall thickness inconsistency. This ensures predictable burst pressure and reliable device performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces conventional thermal laser modification with a non-thermal or minimal-thermal ultrashort pulse laser system. This substitution eliminates the harmful thermal diffusion that causes inconsistent wall thickness, while still achieving the desired surface features for enhanced bonding and friction.
3Shape
If conventional laser heating is used for surface modification, then material can be removed or altered, but the polymer network morphology is disrupted reducing elasticity and mechanical properties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the temporal parameter of energy delivery to ultrashort pulse durations (10^-12 to 10^-15 seconds), which confines thermal energy to the immediate surface layer and prevents propagation into the bulk polymer network. This preserves the polymer chain orientation and network morphology, maintaining elasticity and mechanical properties while achieving surface modification.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables inflatable devices with improved strength, predictable burst pressures, reduced tissue damage, and enhanced bonding to external devices, facilitating safer and more effective medical procedures by maintaining the elasticity and mechanical properties of the devices.
Implementation Method 1
The inventors have advantageously modified the surface (and other structures) of inflatable devices, such as balloons, using low heat lasers, such as ultrashort pulse lasers, while avoiding significant heating of the polymer surrounding the modification.
Implementation Method 2
ultrashort laser pulses can be laser pulses equal to or less than 1000 picoseconds in duration. In another implementation, ultrashort laser pulses can be equal to or less than 1000 femtoseconds in duration.
Data Source
AI summary
Inflatable devices are disclosed including a surface which has a network of polymer chains and is configured to be inflatable into a therapeutically or diagnostically useful shape, and at least one ultrashort laser pulse-formed modification in the surface. The network can, for example, include a network morphology that is substantially unchanged by modification with the ultrashort pulse laser. Ultrashort laser pulses can be laser pulses equal to or less than 1000 picoseconds in duration. Advantageously, the etching process uses a relatively low-heat laser to avoid significant heating of surrounding polymers while modifying the surface (and other structures) of the device. The process is configured so that the polymer chain morphology adjacent the modification is substantially unaffected by the low-heat laser. The resulting inflatable device has customized surface features while still retaining substantially homogenous polymer network morphology. This preserves the elasticity, especially the surface elasticity, of the inflatable device.