Addressing the Need for Smart Polymer Consumable Products

Most people associate Sony with electronics. But the Japanese conglomerate gradually is making inroads in the biomedical sector by developing products that utilize its optical disc technology.

Sony DADC, part of the company’s worldwide CD manufacturing network, currently holds a 75 percent share of the global Blu-ray disc replication market. The firm manufactures 2.1 billion units annually of optical discs such as Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs; it generated about $2.2 billion in sales last year.

Several market trends—particularly an aging population around the globe—has prompted Sony DADC to focus on expanding into the biomedical market, which bigwigs believe will grow significantly in the future as consumers become more interested in their health, thereby increasing demand for preventative medicine and early diagnosis of disease. Decentralization in medical treatment also is expected to fuel the growth of the biomedical market.

“We are uniquely positioned to answer the emerging needs for microstructured polymer devices in the life sciences and in-vitro diagnostic markets,” said Harald Kraushaar, vice president and head of business development, BioSciences, for Sony DADC. “Microstructured products can address many needs in the healthcare market.”

Kraushaar delivered the keynote address at an afternoon forum on high-tech medical devices. The forum was sponsored by IVAM, a professional association for micro technology, on the first day of Compamed 2011, an exhibition geared for medical manufacturing suppliers that runs through Nov. 18 in Düsseldorf, Germany. The forum featured discussions on various topics associated with high-tech medical devices, including anti-infection surfaces for medical devices, hemocompatibility testing for devices, customized photonic systems for life science applications, building non-invasive diagnostics in chronic obstructive lung disease, and active microfluidics in medical applications. The forum continues throughout the Compamed show.

While there are various types of technology that Sony DADC can implement to capture some biomedical market share, executives have targeted the firm’s microstructured injection mold technology used in the production of Blu-ray discs. Sony DADC uses a sensitive injection mold technique to shape extremely fine structures on the disc surface. As the disc volume grows larger, its structure becomes more complicated. For example, the pit length on a CD is 0.83μm and its height is 0.15μm. But, these dimensions are more detailed for a DVD, whose length is 0.4μm and height is 0.1μm. Moreover, the measurements are even smaller for Blu-ray—the length is 0.15μm and height is 0.07μm.

Realizing it has the technology to mold these kinds of micro structured patterns and still retain high reliability, Sony DADC is working to develop consumable products with various biomedical firms such as Lexington, Mass.-based RainDance Technologies Inc., which released a microdroplet-based consumable chip called the HeatWave in July. Capable of performing sophisticated, high-throughput and high-recision microdroplet manipulations on-chip without moving parts or valves, the polymer-based HeatWave was designed by Sony for use on RainDance’s RDT 1000 instrument. Sony DADC also is working with Quanterix Corporation of Cambridge, Mass., to develop “smart consumables” for the life sciences and in-vitro diagnostic markets in 2013 and 2014, and is teaming with Caliper Life Sciences Inc. of Hopkinton, Mass., to develop and manufacture plastic consumable products for microfluidic devices.