Development of micro-wiring on the outer wall of a catheter

Micro-wiring, electrodes and receptacles for mounting micro-devices as sensors on the outer wall of the catheter were developed. Realization of a micro-catheter which has the micro-devices is necessary to develop intraluminal diagnostic and therapeutic systems. Conventionally, the wiring for sensors were wired through the lumen of the catheter. But such a structure was unsuitable to reduce the diameter of the catheter. So we tried to form wiring, electrodes and receptacles for sensors on the outer wall of the catheter. For this purpose, we formed conductive layer on the outer wall of an elastic polymer catheter tube, using vacuum evaporation assisted by accelerated ions, and the layer was formed into the helical shaped wiring, using excimer laser processing. After these processes we electroplated the wiring with copper to reduce the electrical resistance. We also formed receptacles using excimer laser processing and electrodes using evaporation and laser processing, to mount sensors on the outer wall of the catheter. Some basic operation of the wiring using signals from several kinds of sensors are also reported.