Increase bio compatibility of in-vivo and in-vitro medical devices.

Surface energy is a property of a material that determines such factors as wettability, printability, chemical resistance and bio-fouling. In general, materials with high surface energies are hydrophilic and wettable to biomaterials such as cells and proteins. Low energy surfaces, on the other hand, are termed hydrophobic and are characteristically “non-stick”. In-vivo and in-invitro medical devices may require surfaces to resist the adherence of proteins or cells. Reusable containers that carry bio-waste need to be easily emptied and washed. These are just some examples where surfaces need to be engineered to improve their “non-stick” or anti-biofouling properties. Plasma is used to create anti-biofouling coatings by applying a thin fluorocarbon or polyethylene oxide coating. These coatings readily adhere to a wide range of materials when deposited on the surface using a technique called plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). PECVD works by activating an appropriate monomer species, in the plasma and inducing their polymerization on the substrate work-piece. Surface properties of the deposited coating are determined within the first few tens of nanometers of the surface. Gas plasma processing provides a reliable and environmentally friendly method of reducing the surface energy of materials by polymerizing chosen monomers onto a surface in a highly controlled environment.

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	M4L	7200

Why
RF Plasma?