Principles of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Biomedical Devices

The recent advances in manufacturing engineering have accelerated the development of biomedical devices. The advancement in the manufacturing aspects has been reinforced with the help of enhanced characterization techniques and the testing facilities. Especially in the biomedical devices, the quality of the products cannot be compromised and is the primary requirement of the industry and consumer. Apart from maintaining and enhancing the quality of the current devices, the biomedical industry inherited various technologies through interdisciplinary approach. For example, microfluidic devices are made using technologies used to develop electronic devices. Similarly, technologies like 3D printing, Vapour deposition processes are used for developing customized biomedical devices. These processes are used in achieving the materials to develop the required biocompatibility and other properties like transparency, osseointegration, higher strength to weight ratio, hydrophobicity, etc. Researchers have developed traditional manufacturing technologies to adapt and meet the challenges posed by the biomedical devices. The growth in the consumption of these devices led to the advancement in mass fabrication technologies like injection molding, hot-embossing of polymers. Therefore, this chapter focuses on principle aspects of manufacturing like machining and forming combined with interdisciplinary processes like lithography and bioprinting. These technologies coupled with advanced characterization techniques like confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), etc., have enabled increase in the productivity and development of biomedical devices with novel capabilities. This chapter necessarily includes some of the prominent advances in manufacturing and characterization along with the principles behind the processes.