Surface bioactivity of plasma implanted silicon and amorphous carbon

Plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII&D) has been shown to be an effective tech- nique to enhance the surface bioactivity of materials. In this paper, recent progress made in our laboratory on plasma surface modification single-crystal silicon and amorphous carbon is reviewed. Silicon is the most important material in the integrated circuit industry but its surface biocompatibility has not been investigated in details. We have re- cently performed hydrogen PIII into silicon and observed the biomimetic growth of apatite on its surface in simulated body fluid. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is widely used in the industry due to its excellent mechanical properties and chemical inertness. The use of this material in biomedical engineering has also attracted much attention. It has been observed in our laboratory that doping DLC with nitrogen by means of PIII can improve the surface blood compati- bility. The properties as well as in vitro biological test results will be discussed in this article. Keywords Hydrogen implanted silicon, Plasma, Bioactivity, Apatite, Diamond-like carbon, Amorphous carbon, Blood compatibility CLC numbers