HYDROPHILICITY ALTERATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

A system/method allowing hydrophilicity alteration of a polymeric material (PM) is disclosed. The PM hydrophilicity alteration changes the PM characteristics by decreasing the PM refractive index, increasing the PM electrical conductivity, and increasing the PM weight. The system/method incorporates a laser radiation source that generates tightly focused laser pulses within a three-dimensional portion of the PM to affect these changes in PM properties. The system/method may be applied to the formation of customized intraocular lenses comprising material (PLM) wherein the lens created using the system/method is surgically positioned within the eye of the patient. The implanted lens refractive index may then be optionally altered in situ with laser pulses to change the optical properties of the implanted lens and thus achieve optimal corrected patient vision. This system/method permits numerous in situ modifications of an implanted lens as the patient's vision changes with age.

主权项

1. A modified polymeric material (PM) comprising synthetic polymeric materials further comprising a plurality of modified hydrophilicity zones formed within said polymeric material (PM), said plurality of modified hydrophilicity zones created using a method comprising:
(1) generating a pulsed laser radiation output from a laser source; (2) distributing said pulsed laser radiation output across an input area of a microscope objective; (3) accepting said distributed pulsed radiation into a numerical aperture within said microscope objective to produce a focused laser radiation output; and (4) transmitting said focused laser radiation output to an internal region of said PM to modify the hydrophilicity within said internal region of said PM.