BREAKTHROUGHS
World’s Longest Balloon Shortens
Surgery Time
In recent years, existing technology has been
able to produce balloons up to 180 mm in length
for various angioplasty applications. But customers
have been asking companies such as Precision
approach to the technology without repeating other
people’s mistakes, according to Badera. The result
was a more-efficient machine that reduces blow
cycle times and loads the tubing in a manner that
Wireless Sensor
System Features
Battery-Free
Operation
Extrusion Inc. for 240-mm balloons that
can reduce the number of steps in surgical
procedures on long arteries. Working in
conjunction with Wexford, Ireland–based
Advanced Balloon Technologies
Medical, a small start-up company of
When a product
derives its power
from batteries, the
user is saddled with
the inconvenience
of replacing or
experienced extrusion engineers, Precision Using extra-long catheter balloons can reduce the number of steps in
Extrusion can now offer balloons up surgical procedures, thereby reducing risk to patients.
to 340 mm long. Calling it the world’s
longest balloon, the company sees this product and
its manufacturing capability as a significant step
forward in creating balloons that help reduce risks
to patients.
recharging the power
A wireless sensor node by
source. Removing
Germany-based Micropelt
is powered by harvesting
batteries and plugs
thermoelectric energy.
For such procedures as below-the-knee (BTK)
angioplasty, balloons of 180 mm or less have to
be deflated and inflated multiple times in order to
cover a long leg artery. Dilating the artery for each
inflation is not only time-consuming but also can
be harmful to the patient. “There’s less damage
to the blood with one dilation,” explains Precision
allows for heating the balloon to achieve a uniform
blow, despite the increased length. By building the
more-efficient machine from scratch, the engineers
were able to create the 340-mm balloon with a
double-wall thickness of 0.0014 in. and a burst
strength greater than 17 atm.
from the equation
for hassle-free
operation, Micropelt GmbH has developed what
it claims is the world’s first thermopowered
wireless sensor system.
Extrusion president Mike Badera. “A longer balloon
is more efficient for the doctor and the patient
“It is the first device offered that uses
the concept of wireless sensing without using
any battery or line power,” says Burkhard
Habbe, vice president of business development.
“[The TE-Power Node] is the first true
autonomous, battery-free device that operates
on a continuous basis and does not require any
external power or maintenance.”
[because] a balloon that is 240 mm or longer can
do a leg artery in one step.”
In addition to BTK balloons, the company can use
its new technology to extrude tubing and balloons
for rapid prototyping of products for neural, renal,
gastric, kyphoplasty, and percutaneous transluminal
coronary angioplasty applications. Diameters from
0.5 to 20 mm and lengths ranging from 5 to 340
mm can be achieved in multiple configurations and
materials, including nylon, PET, and polyurethane.
—Stephanie Steward
To create the equipment to make the balloon,
the companies’ engineers stripped down existing
extrusion processes and tried to take a fresh
■ Precision Extrusion Inc.
GLENS FALLS, NY
www.precisionextrusion.com
Electronics Supplier Has Good Connections
Zierick Manufacturing
Corp. was determined
to improve the process
of connecting wires to
printed circuit board (PCB)
assemblies, a procedure that
involves large, complicated
components and must often
be performed manually.
Through its efforts, the
displacement connectors,
or hand-soldering methods.
“Until now, we didn’t have a
good solution for connecting
a wire to a PCB,” Legrady
remarks. “Connections were
made using a complex screw
and plastic housing process
that was both expensive
and clumsy. We saw the
need to address the issue of
terminating a wire to a PCB in
an inexpensive way that would
not take up more room than a
hand-soldered connection.”
A specialist in thin-film thermoelectrics,
Micropelt drew on its proprietary scalable
microelecromechanical systems–based
microstructuring platform technology to develop
the TE-Power Node. Equipped with up to two of
the company’s MPG-D751 thermogenerators,
the sensor node operates by harvesting thermal
energy from as little as 3.5°C of effective
temperature differential. “Our technology uses
the Seebeck effect, so it converts a heat flux
driven by a temperature difference across the
thermogenerator into electrical power,” Habbe
explains. This thermoharvesting technology
provides the node with a renewable, battery-free, unlimited power source from an outside
temperature difference of 15°C or more. Habbe
adds that the system is also an environmentally
friendly alternative to batteries.
company developed a product
Zierick’s system for connecting wires to surface-
that not only simplifies
mount PCBs incorporates crimp ears and
and miniaturizes PCB wire
connections but also has won a
metal-forming award.
insulation-piercing spikes.
Zierick’s metal-stamping-based system for
connecting wires to surface-mount PCBs consists
of a flat base for solder adhesion and two sidewalls
perpendicular to the base that serve as crimp ears to
hold the wire in place. In addition, the component
contains two insulation-piercing contact spikes
that protrude from the flat base and contact the
conductor after they pierce through the wire’s
insulation and make an electrical connection. The
connector also features two grooves in the transition
area between the crimp ears and the terminal base,
which ensure that when a wire is crimped into the
terminal and the ears are formed around the wire,
the solder joint will not experience stress cracking.
In addition to their assembly limitations, some
conventional techniques for connecting wires to
PCBs, such as insulation displacement connectors and
hand soldering, do not ensure the connection against
electrical failures caused by vibrations or other types
of strain. In contrast, tests show that Zierick’s crimp
terminal offers failure-free connectivity.
“My favorite test involves subjecting the
component to a high number of thermal shocks,”
Legrady notes. “When thermal shocks occur, there
is always movement in the connection in the form of
expansion and contraction. A high number of shocks
will break down substandard connections.” Zierick’s
engineers performed 500 hours of thermal shocks,
subjecting the component three times an hour to
temperature shifts ranging from –60° to 120°C and
measuring the connection’s contact resistance before
and after the shock. “During this torture test,”
Legrady states, “resistance increased less than 10%,
which indicates a very good connection.”
Depending on application requirements, either
one or two of the thermogenerators is affixed
to an aluminum base plate with a footprint
measuring 60 × 27 mm. An aluminum heat
spreader, designed with threaded holes for easy
access to various heat sinks, is positioned on
top of the thermogenerators. It is stabilized
and insulated by a printed circuit board, which
features the receptacles for plug-in modules. Also
incorporated in the product is a modified version
of the company’s TE-Power Plus dc-dc convertor
designed to change the variable incoming
thermoharvested voltage into a battery-like
constant 2.4 V. “Even a few-hundred microwatts
supplied continuously can easily outperform a
good set of batteries,” according to Habbe.
“The system works by crimping the wire with the
crimp ears,” comments Janos Legrady, Zierick’s
vice president of R&D. “Instead of having to strip
the insulation from the wire, there are spikes in the
crimp ears. When you form the ears around the wire,
the spikes penetrate the wire and make the electrical
connection.” The rest of the crimp material also
provides very good strain relief, Legrady says. “You
can pull the wire and bend it or move it, but you do
not transfer the movement to the connection area.”
With its battery-free and thermal-energy-based operation, the wireless sensor node could
be integrated into medical equipment in order
to monitor such elements as temperature,
sudden temperature changes, pressure, shock,
and vibration. Furthermore, the company sees
potential for the device’s use in nonimplantable
monitoring applications for patients, providing
ultra-low-power wireless sensing of human body
functions based on body heat harvesting.
—Shana Leonard
As a result of its wire-to-board technology
efforts, Zierich has been named the 2009 recipient
of the Higgins-Caditz Award by the Precision
Metalforming Association. —Bob Michaels
■ Micropelt GmbH
FREIBURG, GERMANY
www.micropelt.com
Wires are typically connected to PCBs using
bulky barrier blocks, pin-and-socket assemblies
with two separate connector components, insulation
■ Zierick Manufacturing Corp.
For breaking news coverage
of emerging technologies,
MOUNT KISCO, NY
www.zierick.com
visit MPMN’s daily blog, Medtech Pulse, at devicelink.com/
mpmn/blog
