Laser microprocessing of metallic stent for medical therapy

In the stent therapy for the medical applications, especially in coronary heart disease, the metallic stent of high quality demands the ability for precision micromaterial processing. It possesses an inherent advantage of adequate radio opacity. This paper describes the fabrication of such metallic stent of length 20 mm and diameter 2.0 min with an annular tube thickness of 0.1 mm, by using the short pulse Nd-YAG laser. Fine structures with slit width of 0.1 mm and pitch better than 0.2 mm are created with sharpness and low roughness in the cut surface. Some features of the reduced heat affected zone and dross removal process of the cut surfaces are also discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.