Patent ID: 8555498

Claim:
A method for manufacturing an implantable medical device, comprising: assembling a device housing defining an interior cavity; joining a feed-through assembly to the device housing, the feed-through assembly including a feed-through housing and conductors held in the feed-through housing; joining a back-fill member to the feed-through housing, the back fill member having an opening there through communicating with the interior cavity of the device housing; back-filling the device housing with an inert gas through the opening in the back-fill member; and hermetically sealing the interior cavity by closing the opening through the back-fill member with a sealing element, where the sealing element and back-fill member are formed of different first and second materials, respectively; wherein the sealing further comprises holding the back-fill member in a support tool in a self-aligning manner when closing the opening with the sealing element, while permitting the back-fill member and device housing to self-align within the support tool while a press load is induced onto the sealing element.