Photonic technologies for implantable medical devices

Abstract

Medical implants have benefited in the last years from established photonics manufacturing processes such as laser cutting and marking, but also from emerging ones such as additive manufacturing and surface structuring. The orthopedic sector has been using them for many years to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing processes and as a way to provide traceability and quality control for each part. Their use has been extended to a large number of new implants. We will review in this article some novel photonics technologies applied to the manufacturing and post-processing of medical implants.