Cost Effective Surface Modification for ‘Point of Care’ Consumables

Markets are improving the accessibility of medical and diagnostic devices to their consumers. ‘Point of care’ diagnostic equipment brings medical testing into the patient’s home for convenient and accurate monitoring. Recent innovations make use of wireless data transmission and also integration with mobile devices. Product evolution drives diagnostic devices further into the realm of fast moving consumer goods where success meets lowest possible price point. Enter commodity plastics. Commodity plastics including polyolefins such as PE and PP are excellent material selections as one time use disposables. They are literally cheaper than dirt, they exhibit good stability or shelf life, and they provide robust mechanical properties. Simple hydrocarbons however lack the surface polarity required for compatibility with most biological fluids.

Both atmospheric and low pressure plasma solutions provide surface functionalization at low cost and without modifying the bulk performance. Atmospheric plasma systems provide high speed surface activation and/or silanization. Low pressure plasma enables modification of complex geometries or custom engineering of surface structure. The bottom line is lean, green, and affordable alternatives to expensive material selection and/or wet surface chemistry modification. My final two ₵ents on disposable devices; plasma modification.