Patent ID: 7766956

Claim:
A stent in a non-expanded state, comprising: a first expansion column including individual first expansion struts forming a plurality of first expansion strut pairs, each first expansion strut pair including a first expansion strut having a stair-step region at distal end thereof and a stair-step region at a proximal end thereof, two adjacent first expansion strut pairs sharing a common strut; a second expansion column including individual second expansion struts forming a plurality of second expansion strut pairs, each second expansion strut pair including a second expansion strut having a stair-step region at distal end thereof and a stair-step region at a proximal end thereof, two adjacent second expansion strut pairs sharing a common strut; a first connecting strut column including a plurality of non-intersecting individual first connecting struts that couple only the first and second expansion columns, wherein each of an individual first connecting strut includes a proximal section and a distal section, the proximal section extending from the stair-step region at the distal end of one of the first expansion struts, the distal section extending from the stair-step region at the proximal end of one of the second expansion struts, each of the proximal sections having a longitudinal axis and each of the distal sections having a longitudinal axis, at least one of the longitudinal axis of each of the proximal sections and the longitudinal axis of each of the distal sections being parallel with at least one of a longitudinal axis of each first expansion strut and a longitudinal axis of each second expansion strut; wherein each first and second expansion strut includes a straight segment between the stair-step region at distal end thereof and the stair-step region at proximal end thereof.