Since their introduction in 1986, stents have transformed the treatment of coronary heart disease and other arterial occlusions. Today, millions of stents are implanted worldwide each year to treat various vascular and endovascular diseases caused by the narrowing or blockage of blood vessels. Nearly all commercially available stents are made from metals. Theses stents remain in the vessels permanently after implantation and are prone to cause serious medical complications in many cases. One potential solution to avoid such complications is to use stents made out of bioabsorbable materials. Bio-absorbable stents dissolves in the human body after serving their purpose. However, machining of bio-absorbable material is a challenging task. In this paper the influence of the laser process parameters on the efficiency and quality of the machining of bio-absorbable materials using Spirit® femtosecond laser system from Spectra-Physics is presented.

Date Published: 9 March 2015
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9355, Frontiers in Ultrafast Optics: Biomedical, Scientific, and Industrial Applications XV, 935502 (9 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2079014

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9355:
Frontiers in Ultrafast Optics: Biomedical, Scientific, and Industrial Applications XV
Alexander Heisterkamp; Peter R. Herman; Michel Meunier; Stefan Nolte, Editor(s)