Hermetic seal
AssigneeBoston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation
InventorGeorge Tziviskos
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A seal design provides positive compression to produce a hermetic seal around a feedthrough pin in a hermetically sealed device, including an implantable medical device. One embodiment of the seal design uses a plurality of “micro-flanges” placed along the length of a feedthrough pin, which micro-flanges grabs and compresses the insulator material to form a hermetic seal. Because the seal design produces positive compression of the insulator, the seal is relatively insensitive to changes in temperature and to differences in thermal expansion coefficients (“TCEs”) between the metal feedthrough and the insulator. It is therefore possible to use a wider variety of materials for the insulator and the feedthrough with the described sealing design, while achieving a superior hermetic seal.
Claims13
A hermetic sealing system for a sealed medical device, the system comprising:
- a feedthrough pin including at least first and second micro-flanges emanating from the body of the feedthrough pin, wherein the micro-flanges do not comprise sharp discontinuities;
- an insulator surrounding the feedthrough pin,
- wherein the feedthrough pin is placed under compression by the surrounding insulator, resulting in a positive hermetic seal;
- and
- wherein the feedthrough pin is part of the sealed medical device which is implantable in a body of a person.
A method of implementing a hermetic seal comprising:
- providing a medical device housing with a hole in the housing;
- providing a feedthrough pin having a first end and a second end, wherein the feedthrough pin has at least two flanges, a first flange and a second flange;
- and
- placing an insulator material within the hole and surrounding at least a portion of the feedthrough pin with the insulator material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.