Smart implants are endowed with functions of sensing, actuating and control to solve problems that may arise during their use. The assembly of these functions along the implant surface is still a challenge. However, with the advent of 3D printing, it is possible to print on implants’ surface, communication channels or micro-antennas or even sensoric/actuating areas. Hence, a positive impact on the long-term performance of the implants (including hip, dental and knee) may be expected with the proposed approach. Despite titanium and Ti6Al4V titanium alloy are the standard choice for implants fabrication, 3Y-TZP (tetragonal 3% mol yttria-stabilized zirconia) has emerged as a ceramic material suitable to overcome titanium alloy problems, due to its numerous advantages. In this sense, this work is concerned with the ability of printing silver-based communication system in zirconia substrates by using laser technology. For this purpose, micro-cavities were created on ZrO₂ substrate, where the silver powder was placed and sintered into them. Through the laser approach, silver-based wires with great quality and low resistivity values were achieved. The flexural strength results showed that the mechanical resistance of zirconia disks was affected by laser micro-wire printing, which decreased as the laser passage was performed. Based on the results, it is believed that the proposed approach seems to be effective for the manufacturing of implants with intrinsic capacities, useful for smart implant applications.

智能植入物具有传感，促动和控制功能，可以解决使用过程中可能出现的问题。这些功能沿着植入物表面的组装仍然是一个挑战。但是，随着3D打印的出现，可以在植入物的表面，通信通道或微天线或什至是感应/致动区域上进行打印。因此，采用该方法有望对植入物（包括髋部，牙齿和膝盖）的长期性能产生积极影响。尽管钛和Ti6Al4V钛合金是植入物制造的标准选择，但3Y-TZP（四方3％摩尔氧化钇稳定的氧化锆）因其众多的优势而成为适合克服钛合金问题的陶瓷材料。在这个意义上说，这项工作涉及使用激光技术在氧化锆衬底上印刷基于银的通信系统的能力。为此，在ZrO上创建了微腔_2个基板，在其中放置银粉并烧结到其中。通过激光方法，获得了高质量和低电阻率值的银基导线。弯曲强度结果表明，氧化锆圆盘的机械阻力受激光微丝印刷的影响，随着激光通过而降低。基于结果，可以认为，所提出的方法对于具有固有容量的植入物的制造似乎是有效的，这对于智能植入物应用是有用的。