Petaluma, Calif.-based laser company Raydiance Corp. announced it has made a major breakthrough in manufacturing a wide variety of bioabsorbable materials with precise, micron-resolution feature sizes and with no heat-affected zones. Raydiance has been deploying its Smart Light MD platform with medical device companies  

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This 3.5-mm-diameter bioabsorbable stent with 80-µm struts was machined with the Raydiance Smart Light, the only commercial-grade ultrafast laser, according to the company. (Photo: Business Wire)

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to make a range of bioabsorbable vascular stent designs and materials, as well as other biocompatible polymers. The recent work was performed on bioabsorbable materials such as polylactic acid, polyglycolic acid and a variety of copolymers; the stents machined by Raydiance had strut dimensions of 80 µm and less (Watch a video of a stent being machined here).

“The medical device industry has embarked on an exciting wave of innovation in small, extremely precise implantable devices,” said Scott Davison, president of Raydiance. “These new products and applications require a new tool that enables the machining of very small features without introducing heat to the process. Raydiance Smart Light is that tool.” Raydiance is discussing the advance and its ultrafast laser technology at the Medical Design and Manufacturing show in Minneapolis today and tomorrow at the Rofin-Sinar booth (1425). Raydiance lasers are used in the medical device, energy, biosciences, consumer electronics and defense technology markets. The company also recently announced a partnership with contract manufacturer Norman Noble to use the Smart Light as the core technology to power its advanced laser machining process, Noble UltraLight.