Strengthening presence in the healthcare industries

In the recent couple of years, healthcare industries have truly awakened to the endless possibilities ALD offers to them. As the population ages, the need for various ‘spare parts’ of the body, such as artificial hips, knee joints, dental implants, and stimulators for heart or brain functions grows. Along with the increasing miniaturisation of implantable microelectronics and wireless sensors, remote health monitoring and therapeutics is also becoming commonplace.

Juhana Kostamo, Managing Director of Picosun Group, said: “Picosun has worked with medical companies for a long time, for example with Russian-based implant manufacturer Conmet LLC, and with Swedish Nanexa AB, who uses ALD for drug particle surface functionalisation for targeted and controlled drug delivery. 

“We also collaborate with several universities where medical ALD technology is developed. These projects have given us unique insight into this business, which is quite different from the semiconductor industries, the most typical ‘playground’ for ALD.”

The common fact to all implantable medical devices is that they need protection from the rather hostile environment inside human body. Body fluids are corrosive so the implant must be isolated from them, and vice versa – the body needs to be protected from possible rejection reaction or metal ion leakage caused by the implant. 

This is where ALD, with its capability to form intrinsically biocompatible, reliably hermetic and ultra-thin sealing around the implanted device, shows its strength. ALD encapsulation increases the implant lifetime and safety, potentially reducing the number of replacement surgeries or ‘maintenance’ operations of the implanted device.

Kostamo added: “Our PicoMEDICAL solutions are tailored especially to the needs of medical industries that are often still new to ALD. We provide not only the equipment, but the whole chain starting from application consultancy to equipment and process optimisation, production ramp-up and comprehensive after-sales support to ensure our customers’ production keeps running smoothly and with minimum downtime. 

“We are happy that we have been chosen as the ALD solutions provider to a yet new prominent customer in this field. Our technology shows again its agility and the potential to improve the quality of life for so many implant patients now and in the future.”