Picosun’s Medical ALD Solutions Enable Safer Surgeries

ESPOO, Finland, 23rd November 2020 – Picosun Group, the leading supplier of AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin-film coating solutions, partners with prominent Chinese hospitals and researchers to apply medical ALD technology for safer surgical procedures.

Picosun’s biocompatible ALD coatings will be applied to electrosurgical equipment (electrotomes) to improve their performance, safety, and service life.

“It’s great to collaborate with a company such as Picosun to develop solutions for safer and more patient-friendly surgeries. Picosun is the leader in medical ALD solutions. The company has an extensive process portfolio for biocompatible ALD materials and their equipment is in use at several medical equipment manufacturers around the world. In China, Picosun is the market leader with numerous PICOSUN® ALD systems installed throughout the country. We have strong trust that this collaboration will result in disruptive new innovations and novel solutions for surgical equipment,” says Longsheng Lu, Professor of South China University of Technology.

Electrotome utilizes high temperature to cut and separate tissue, simultaneously coagulating blood, and it’s a standard equipment replacing traditional mechanical scalpels in many operations. Tissue and blood sticking and burning on the electrotome blade is a serious problem because the crusted blade risks increased bleeding, tissue damage, tearing, and scarring, thus making the patient’s healing time longer. Smoke from the burning tissue may also hinder the surgeon’s vision and increase the risk for error during delicate procedures such as cardiac or neurosurgery.

Thus far, there hasn’t been a working solution in the market to overcome this problem. ALD technology can potentially provide this solution and thus improve patient safety, wound quality, and healing time. ALD forms ultra-thin, pinhole-free coatings with unmatched conformality over the smallest microscale details of the surface, and the ALD process can be performed at moderate temperatures so the method is suitable also for sensitive materials. Deposited over special anti-adhesive micropatterning of the electrotome blade, biocompatible ALD film prevents blood and tissue from sticking to the blade.

“We are happy to extend our PicoMEDICAL™ technology to a yet new healthcare application, and to work with top tier Chinese hospitals and scientists to qualify our solutions in everyday use. ALD is revolutionizing the medical field right now, just like it did to semiconductor industries over a decade ago. We at Picosun want to use our extensive ALD know-how to develop solutions to improve people’s health and quality of life, which is why medical ALD is one of our key markets for the future,” continues Dr. Jani Kivioja, CTO of Picosun Group.

Picosun provides the most advanced AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin-film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment is in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, China mainland and Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, offices in India and France, and a worldwide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.