Sensor Integration Technology - Part 2 - Advancing the Future of MedTech with Alleima - Ep8

Speaker A: Foreign. Hello and um, thank you for joining us on the Advancing the Future of Medtech with a Layma Podcast. In this podcast series, we take an in depth look at how innovations in medical technology and device materials are offering new and exciting possibilities for preventative health, minimally invasive procedures, and better patient outcomes. One major focus area for the industry is smaller, smarter and more connected solutions that can improve monitoring, neurostimulation, and expand applications for minimally invasive procedures. We started to explore this Trend with Casey McDormand from Alema's Medical Unit in the last episode, and today we are thrilled that Casey can join us again to go into more depth on the technical side of sensor integration, specifically how advanced wire materials enable sensing, signal transmission and miniaturization in advanced medical devices.

Speaker B: Casey, welcome back.

Speaker C: Thanks for having me back, Alison.

Speaker B: Let's start with the engineering challenge. Why is sensor integration becoming more difficult in modern medical devices?

Speaker C: The biggest challenge is that devices are simultaneously becoming smaller, more functional, and data driven. We see OEMs wanting to integrate sensing of parameters such as temperature, force, pressure, position, flow, and electrical signal mapping into extremely small device architectures. This creates competing requirements like high conductivity, flexibility, fatigue resistance, signal integrity, coding performance, and manufacturability. At the wire level, the difficulty is that the wire is no longer just a passive component. It may be carrying a signal helping shape or support the device, enabling torque or pushability, contributing to radiopacity and surviving repeated motion inside a very tight anatomy.

Speaker B: So miniaturization increases complexity exponentially.

Speaker C: Exactly. At, uh, larger scales, you can compensate for material limitations more easily, but when the dimensions become extremely small, material consistency and processing precision become critical. Tiny variations in diameter, microstructure, surface finish or coating thickness can significantly impact the device's performance.

Speaker B: From an OEM perspective, where do things usually go wrong?

Speaker C: Often the problems are not obvious. At the first prototyping stage, a prototype may work beautifully on the bench, but then the process window is too narrow when the OEM tries to scale, that is, when the small sources of variability become more visible.

Speaker B: Could you give us an example?

Speaker C: Sure. A wire drawing or grinding step can create slight diameter variation or residual stress. A surface scratch that looks minor can become a coating adhesion issue or an insulation weak point. A laser weld, solder, joint crimp or heat setting step can change localized stiffness or electrical behavior in a stranded or multifiler cable. Variation in lay length, bonding, coating thickness or strand tension can influence impedance, capacitance, crosstalk and flexibility. The most difficult failures are often at interfaces where a Flexible section meets a stiffer section. Where a coded conductor is stripped and terminated, or a sensor package is joined to a wire, or where a radio peg element or marker changes the mechanical profile. Those transition zones can become fatigue hotspots, signal noise sources, or yield loss drivers during assembly.

Speaker B: So manufacturability has to be designed in from the beginning?

Speaker C: Yes, for sensor integrated devices, design for manufacturability is not a late stage activity. OEMs need to think about which parameters are critical to quality. Diameter, tensile strength, elongation, surface finish, insulation integrity, conductor resistance, bond strength, impedance, fatigue performance, radio opacity and cleanliness. It is also important to consider what happens after wire production. Will the wire be wound, braided, coiled, laser welded, stripped, bonded, sterilized or aged? Each of those steps can affect the final sensor performance. So the wire specification has to reflect the full device journey, not just the raw material requirement.

Speaker B: Technically speaking, how does a wire become part of a sensing system?

Speaker C: A UH sensor fundamentally converts a physical change into a measurable signal. With wire based systems, the wire may respond to or transmit signals such as strain, temperature, bending pressure, flow or electrical activity. For example, in strain sensing, resistance changes as the wire deforms. As the wire stretches, the length changes, the cross sectional area changes, the resistance changes. This resistance variation becomes the sensing signal. In temperature sensing, a thermocouple or resistance based element generates a predictable electrical response to heat. In pressure or force sensing, the wire may transmit a signal from a small sensor element at the distal end of a device. In electrophysiology or neurostimulation, very fine conductors may carry signals from multiple electrodes while still allowing the device to flex repeatedly.

Speaker B: Okay, that's interesting and sounds important. What you're saying is sensing accuracy relies on the material properties of the wire components?

Speaker C: Absolutely. Electrical resistivity, mechanical elasticity and dimensional consistency all influence sensor performance. And in medical devices, the wire often serves multiple functions simultaneously. Structural support, signal transmission, sensor integration, electrical conduction, radio opacity, and sometimes mechanical actuation. That multifunctionality is what makes material selection so important.

Speaker B: Let's talk now about material science. Specifically, what material characteristics matter most?

Speaker C: Several factors are critical. First is electrical conductivity and signal stability. For high performance sensing applications, you need predictable electrical behavior with minimal variability. Second is mechanical performance, which includes properties like tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, kink resistance, torque response and fatigue resistance. These properties are especially important in devices that experience repeated flexing, like catheters, guide wires, neuromodulation leads, or electrophysiology devices. Third is microstructure control at uh, ultra fine dimensions, grain structure inclusions, work hardening history and material uniformity directly affect the consistency, durability and electrical performance. And finally, surface condition becomes extremely important.

Speaker B: Why surface condition?

Speaker C: Because coatings and insulation systems depend heavily on surface quality. Surface defects can impact adhesion, insulation performance, signal noise and long term reliability. When integrating sensors into miniature devices, the surface effectively becomes part of the functional system. A UH coating is not just a protective layer. It may determine electrical isolation, lubricity, bonding behavior and how the device survives downstream processing.

Speaker B: How does a LAMER typically work with OEMs on these bespoke requirements?

Speaker C: The most successful collaborations start before the device architecture is completely frozen. We work with OEMs to translate the clinical and system level requirements into a wire or wire based component structure that can include things like setting the alloy, defining the diameter or profile, choosing a single strand ribbon, multi filer, cable or cord wire construction, tailoring cold worker heat treatment, selecting coatings or platings and defining the right surface finish. In some designs, the OEM might need high conductivity, fatigue resistance, radiopacity and very tight dimensional control in the same component. In others, the priority may be a low profile ribbon, a multi channel conductor or a wire that can be stripped, welded or bonded very predictably.

Speaker B: How would Alema work with the industry to optimize for these very particular requirements?

Speaker C: Alema's role is to bring material science and precision processing into that discussion. Earlier. We can help the OEM identify trade offs, build prototypes, refine specifications, define critical to quality parameters, and then scale the solution with traceability and process control. The goal is to not simply supply a wire, it is to help the OEM arrive at a manufacturable, reliable and application specific solution.

Speaker B: Can you give us a concrete example of that? Sure.

Speaker C: A good example is an OEM developing a sensorized catheter or guide wire that needs multiple conductors and a very small cross section. On paper, the request may sound simple, make it smaller, more flexible and more conductive. But in practice, those requirements can conflict. If you increase conductivity, you may choose a different alloy or UH cord construction. If you increase strength, you may change the stiffness or fatigue behavior. If you add a coating, you affect the diameter, flexibility, bondability and termination. If you add radiopacity, you may introduce another material interface. The bespoke part is finding the balance that works for the OEM's device assembly, process, performance requirement and regulatory pathway.

Speaker B: Wow, thank you. That's a lot of food for thought there. Um, how about a final note for

Speaker C: engineers listening Sensor integration challenges are often solved much earlier than people think at the material and wire level. The combination of advanced metallurgy, precision processing, thoughtful design for manufacturability and manufacturing consistency is what enables next generation medical devices to function reliably at Manager scales. For OEMs, the key message is to involve the wire and materials team early. The earlier those trade offs are understood, the easier it is to design a device that performs well in the lab, survives, scale up and delivers the value in the procedure.

Speaker A: Casey, thank you so much. We truly appreciate your time and expertise. Listeners. If this is a subject that you've been hoping to investigate a bit more, Elemer, uh, has created a white paper which is a must read for anyone working in medical device OEMs. It's further down this page and you can download it from free. Otherwise do explore the ELE content hub with many expert, LED and data driven articles, podcasts and white papers on a range of related topics. Thank you so much for listening and hopefully you'll join us again.