Tips for Selecting Insulating Materials for Medical Electronics

Insulating and jacketing material options for wire and cable are innumerable, even if the field is narrowed to those with some qualification for use in medical electronics. Material selection for medical electronics is a complicated decision that begins with defining “qualification” and “medical”. Device manufacturers rely on a combination of in-house experiences, cable suppliers, testing laboratories, consulting services, standards, guidance documents, and other publications. Their requirements for new devices may be defined strictly by the FDA, or may further incorporate application, market, or manufacturer preferences. For example, there are a great number of materials that will meet FDA requirements for surface contact patient monitoring cable materials, but a flexible and highly durable, silky-textured, cost competitive material may be preferred by the user. A specification may also call for a higher level of biocompatibility than is strictly required by the FDA. This may be the result of existing qualifications obtained with those materials, or it may be an over-specification that should be explored.