Micro-machining technology development for manufacturing of 3D imaging catheters

该CRD项目的目标是继续开发微加工技术，用于制造尺寸小于几毫米的具有微尺度特征的微型部件。产品小型化具有许多潜在的优点，例如多功能性、重量、空间、成本的节省、可靠性的增加以及新功能的产生。这在微创医疗设备领域尤其如此，因为较小的设备能够进入身体中的大量区域。 因此，产品的小型化极大地增加了制造复杂3D部件的需求，这些部件具有小至几微米的特征，并且在包括不锈钢、钛、陶瓷、聚合物等在内的各种材料中具有高度的相对精度。本计画所实现之微机械加工技术，将应用于生物医学三维影像导管之开发。

The objective of this CRD project is to continue to develop micro-machining technologies for fabrication of miniature components of size less than a couple of millimeters with micro-scale features. Product miniaturization has many potential advantages such as multiple functionality, savings in weight, space, cost, increased reliability, and generation of new capabilities. This is particularly true in the minimally invasive medical devices space, as smaller devices are able to access a larger number of regions in the body. As a result, miniaturization of products have dramatically increased the need to fabricate complex 3D parts with features as small as a few microns to a highly relative accuracy in a diverse set of materials including stainless steel, titanium, ceramics, polymers, etc. In collaboration with Colibri Technologies Inc., the micro-machining technologies realized in this project will be applied to development of biomedical 3D imaging catheters.