On February 9th – 11th, the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California played host to the largest Medical Device Manufacturing show in North America. With over 2,000 exhibitors and 21,000 show attendees, some of the world’s most innovative products and services were on display during the three day exhibition. According to the pre-show survey, the number one objective for attendees was to “Discover new products, services and technologies.” There was no shortage of new technologies including advancements in 3D printing, molding and the ability to create 3D circuitry on various surfaces.
A-Laser (Booth #2283), a Northern California company that offers unique laser processing services and project development, featured a technology that allows them to create circuit traces on a wide variety of 3D printed or molded plastics and substrates. This technology, known as Molded Interconnect Devices, allows medical device development teams to push design limits by utilizing their product housing as space to create circuits, reduce overall part size & weight and reduce electrical component layouts. This becomes an important factor for the medical industry as device manufacturers continue to miniaturize.
While MIDs are found in multiple markets, they are particularly useful in the medical device arena, where marrying integrated circuit traces and molded thermoplastic parts offers tremendous benefit for devices that can deliver more immediate diagnostic results. Applications include hearing aids, blood glucose meters, remote patient monitoring systems, drug delivery systems, disposable catheter interfaces, neurostimulation controllers, wireless device antennas and Integrated Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions to name a few.
MIDs are injection molded thermoplastic parts that contain integrated circuit traces and provide many design, capability and cost advantages as compared to conventional printed circuit boards. The combined functionality gained by utilizing plated circuitry opens the door to unlimited application and design ideas. While MIDs will not replace traditional printed circuitry, they will complement designs that would be impossible to achieve with other technologies. To learn more about this unique technology, please visit http://a-laser.com/3dcircuits/.
A-Laser, an FCT Companies Business
www.a-laser.com
