SEALANT

The goal of the SEALANT project is to develop a new generation of thin-film-based hermetic encapsulation technology for miniaturized medical implants instead of the conventional bulky metal or glass housings used. This new coating approach enables direct encapsulation of the implant components and a concomitant reduction in implant size. The generic platform concept to be developed in this project for implantable pulse generators (IPG), PCBs and miniaturized optical implants based on thin-film LEDs will allow important material and system parameters to be extracted and design rules to be defined. Furthermore, test methods will be developed and validated that allow estimation of lifetime for medical implants with encapsulation and are transferable to all flexible implants. The EUREKA-Eurostars initiative of the European Union has approved funding for a joint project of the companies Osypka AG in Rheinfelden, Comelec SA in LA Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland as well as the Institute for Microsystems Technology IMTEK of the University of Freiburg and the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute NMI in Reutlingen.