Lasers and supervillains have a storied, intertwining history. In 1964, for instance, cinemagoers were wowed and terrified as the titular villain in Goldfinger – the third film in the James Bond franchise – has the hero strapped to a table, intending to dissect him with a laser before he escapes. A decade or so later, the Star Wars series took lasers to a planetary scale, with Darth Vader blowing up planets with a laser that cut through space. From there, lasers have graced all manner of movies, from the 1980s comedy Real Genius to bigbudget Marvel films.
Yet if the supervillain lasers look scary on the silver screen, their real-world cousins are rather more benign – with potentially revolutionary consequences for medical manufacturing. According to researchers at Tohoku University in Japan, after all, it may be possible to reduce the size of the so-called focal spot in ultrafast laser processing. Considering this technology is critical to the manufacturing of semiconductors, and can hone devices to a remarkable degree of accuracy, this shrinkage could transform both the production and final use of medical devices. As Professor Yuichi Kozawa, involved in this focal spot-shrinking research project at Tohoku University in Japan, told industry magazine Photonics Spectra, his research “opens new possibilities for laser nanoprocessing in various industries and scientific fields”.
“You could use lasers to drill lots of little holes to release the tension [in the scarring]. It’s the same theory as for cosmetic treatments.”
Dr Jon Exley
Beyond the headline jargon, however, what have Kozawa and his colleagues achieved? It all centres on tightening the focus of a laser, enhancing its processing accuracy and resolution to then create a super small ablation hole. When testing it on a glass surface, the researchers claim to have made an incision just 67μm (nanometres) across. For some this is a big leap forward, with experts stating it’s unusual to get below 50μm in diameter for a laser beam that might be used in a medical or clinical setting. And looking forward, Kozawa’s journal article explains, a cut of 30μm would be an effective holy grail for making items like semiconductors. Ergo: in manufacturing terms, this is a potential big advancement.
$22bn
The total medical laser market cap is projected to be this by 2034.
Yahoo!Finance
Getting to the point
For Kozawa and his team, actually shrinking the laser down involved moving away from methods considered non-ideal for laser drilling. Using a radially polarised beam, they moved it through a lens, similar to those found on microscopes to create a tighter laser spot. This, they claim, enabled direct laser processing by inducing a lightmatter interaction. That, in turn, resulted in a very small ablation hole – showing potential for achieving laser nanoprocessing at below 100μm. That’s something that has traditionally been hard to achieve using existing laser methods. While precise fabrication at the micrometre (micron) scale is common in ultrafast laser processing – thanks to the ability to pulse lasers at picosecond and femtoseconds – achieving incisions at nanometres is considered far more challenging.
In the medical device manufacturing industry, there is certainly evidence to suggest that higher resolution and smaller focal points are what’s needed to push the sector forward. Elyn Wu, director at laser specialists Kunshan Yunco Precision, has written about current difficulties in ultrafast laser processing, noting that challenges arise around fiddly processing methods – especially in device manufacturing that requires welding materials with different properties together. Successfully cutting ultra-thin materials can be tricky too. But with higher precision ultrafast laser processing, Wu suggests, it’s increasingly possible to more effectively engineer everything from micro scalpels and tweezers to microporous filters and glass lenses. That’s even as the resulting products come with fewer of the deficiencies that blight traditional laser manufacturing, notably around the creation of burrs or imprecisions.
Cut through advancements
Similarly optimistic is Dr Jon Exley, managing director at laser manufacturer Lynton and honorary secretary of the British Medical Laser Association. He had just one word when he heard about the results of the Tohoku research: “Wow.” In his business, where lasers are both critical in manufacturing the devices and in what those devices can do – Lynton also fabricates devices for hair and tattoo removal – Exley says it’s unusual to get below 50μm. With Lynton selling machines that perform laser-reliant anti-ageing treatments, skin tightening and resurfacing, it’s unsurprising that Exley is interested in what such a small laser point might mean for what medical devices can achieve in themselves. “It could make a huge difference to the aesthetic treatment market,” he explains. “Theoretically, such small laser focal points could be a game changer for the industry.” Indeed, such technical advances are expected to have a substantial financial impact with the global aesthetic laser treatment industry expected to be worth $3.3bn by 2031.
But it’s not just aesthetic pursuits where Exley sees utility for small laser focal points. As he explains, burns patients who have limited mobility due to scarred tissue might benefit from smaller laser focal points too. “You could use lasers to drill lots of little holes to release the tension [in the scarring],” he explains. “It’s the same theory as for cosmetic treatments – it would be an advantage.” Elsewhere, Exley describes how a more focused, high-energy beam might benefit procedures that need to shoot lasers down thin endoscopic fibres, cutting tumours out of bronchioles deep in the lungs. “I imagine that would be an advantage to get more power down flexible fibres,” the expert says, adding surgeons can already do this but are limited in how deep and effective they can be by the stiffness of fibres. Theoretically, Exley stresses, more powerful, focused lasers could solve this. Elsewhere, Exley adds that ear, nose and throat surgeries, such as cutting tumours from vocal cords, would benefit from more accurate focus of light – as that would limit any potential secondary damage to vocal cords.
On the device manufacturing side, smaller focal points can build on the advancements made in laser technology over the past few decades. Indeed, in the world of life-saving implant devices like pacemakers, recent advances have allowed the development of hermetically sealed electrical devices, better connection, sterility and biocompatibility. At the same time, smaller focal points have permitted device walls to be thinned out. That means thinner tubing in catheters and endoscopes, and smaller circuit boards in cuttingedge technology. No wonder the very smallest lasers are used in microwelding, which helps make surgical blades, medical tech batteries and endoscopic instruments; smaller focal points bolster the manufacturing of medical tubes, hook assemblage and hypo wires. No wonder the smallest lasers – 50μm or less – are said to represent a brave new world in medical device manufacturing, with their ability to join together any combination of materials. That’s even as the smallest blasts of lasers in micromachining allow smaller holes in needles, which is better for drug delivery and wire stripping.
Laser sharp focus
Not that smaller focal points are necessarily a medical panacea. As Exley notes, whatever the accuracy benefits of new devices, the ability of surgeons to be precise still remains a limiting factor. That doubtless explains why, though the total medical laser market cap is expected to be worth $22bn by 2034, up from $5.7bn in 2023, Exley still suspects the cosmetic and aesthetic treatments market to ultimately drive growth. “We’re trying to solve the problem of keeping clinical effectiveness up while reducing downtime,” he says. “It’s why if this [smaller laser focal point] was a solution to drive an aggressive treatment, with fantastic results, and minimal downtime, it would be great and spark interest.”
13μm
Features as small as this are regularly cut with high accuracy in ultrafast laser processing in medical device manufacturing.
Mass Device
Of course, developments in the medical consumer space would likely come alongside manufacturing breakthroughs too – if only because, as Wu describes in his article, more tightly focused, reliable lasers can help push forward more flexible designs in medical devices. Yet if she emphasises that the potential is huge, practical success can only come from progress in the lab – even if that simply involves making lasers even smaller. As Exley says, for manufacturers such as Lynton, the future will involve partnering with universities to keep ahead of the competition. “We’re always doing research and development,” he says, “and looking at how it could be implemented.” A laser focus indeed.
