Improved wetting of gold active braze alloy on diamond for use in medical implants

K Edalati; M Stamp; K Ganesan; A Stacey; G Martin-Hardy; R Fontaine; S Prawer; DJ Garrett

Journal article

Improved wetting of gold active braze alloy on diamond for use in medical implants

K Edalati, M Stamp, K Ganesan, A Stacey, G Martin-Hardy, R Fontaine, S Prawer, DJ Garrett

Diamond and Related Materials | Elsevier | Published : 2020

DOI: 10.1016/j.diamond.2020.108089

Abstract

Medical implants containing active electronics must have a leak-proof encapsulation to be certified as safe for human use. Implantable devices made from diamond demonstrated exceptionally long implantation lifetimes due to the outstanding biostability and biocompatibility of the material. However, since diamond does not melt and is therefore not weldable, forming joints between diamond components or embedding metallic wires and bonding pads within diamond is challenging. One method consists of using active braze alloys to bond diamond surfaces together. These active brazes comprise a precious metal alloy containing a carbide forming element that chemically bonds to the diamond as the braze m..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Steven Prawer Author Physics

Melanie Stamp Author Biomedical Engineering

Alastair Stacey Author Physics

David Garrett Author Physics

Kumaravelu Ganesan Author Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

The work was performed in part at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). DJG is supported by NHMRC Project Grant GNT1101717 and by an Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF)/Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) Technology Ambassador Fellowship. SP is a shareholder in iBIONICS, a company developing a diamond based retinal prosthesis. SP and DJG are shareholders and public officers of Carbon Cybernetics Pty Ltd., a company developing diamond and carbon-based medical device components. The other authors declare no conflict of interest. We would like to thank the Bio21 Advanced Microscopy Facility (the University of Melbourne) for training and assistance with SEM and EDS imaging of samples. The research was supported by a Development Grant from The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, GNT1118223) of Australia and ARC linkage grant LP160101052.