Medical Coatings and Deposition Technologies

Book excerpt: Medical Coatings and Deposition Technologies is an important new addition to the libraries of medical device designers and manufacturers. Coatings enable the properties of the surface of a device to be controlled independently from the underlying bulk properties; they are often critical to the performance of the device and their use is rapidly growing. This book provides an introduction to many of the most important types of coatings used on modern medical devices as well as descriptions of the techniques by which they are applied and methods for testing their efficacy. Developers of new medical devices and those responsible for producing them will find it an important reference when deciding if a particular functionality can be provided by a coating and what limitations may apply in a given application. Written as a practical guide and containing many specific coating examples and a large number of references for further reading, the book will also be useful to students in materials science & engineering with an interest in medical devices. Chapters on antimicrobial coatings as well as coatings for biocompatibility, drug delivery, radiopacity and hardness are supported by chapters describing key liquid coating processes, plasma-based processes and chemical vapor deposition. Many types of coatings can be applied by more than one technique and the reader will learn the tradeoffs given the relevant design, manufacturing and economic constraints. The chapter on regulatory considerations provides important perspectives regarding the marketing of these coatings and medical devices.