FATIGUE BEHAVIOR AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF PT-20IR WIRE AS LEAD CONDUCTOR IN IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE

ABSTRACT Pt-20Ir cold draw wire has been used as lead conductor in implantable medical devices. The lead is a medical device to transfer the electrical signal from a implanted stimulator to the body area for stimulating such as brain and neurological nerves. In this study, fatigue behavior and failure mechanism of Pt-20Ir wire was studied with rotary bending fatigue testing. The relations between the cyclic strain amplitude( ε ) and the cycles to failure (N) were obtained and compared with MP35N wire which is the most commonly used metal wire as lead conductors. The results show Pt-20Ir cold drawn wire (0.102 mm) has a fatigue endurance strain limit of 0.18% which is significant lower than that of MP35N wire. Microstructure of Pt-20Ir cold draw wire was also analyzed. Results show that the grain size of in wire is elongated like bundled fiber structure. The texture of wire is strongly fiber textured and with a strong gradient from outside layer to center of the wire. Near surface region has <111> textured grain and around center region of the wire has <100> textured grain. The center of grain also has larger size than near surface