Patent ID: 8623068

Claim:
An expandable medical device comprising: a plurality of elongated beams, the plurality of elongated beams, each having a width, joined together to form a substantially cylindrical device which is expandable from a first diameter to a second diameter and; a plurality of ductile hinges, each of the ductile hinges having a width and first and second opposing ends such that the first end connects to a circumferential link having an increased cross-sectional area with respect to the ductile hinge and the second end connects to one of the beams, thereby connecting the plurality of beams together in the substantially cylindrical device; wherein the hinge width is smaller than the beam width such that as the device is expanded from the first diameter to the second diameter the ductile hinges experience plastic deformation while the beams are not plastically deformed, each of the ductile hinges being in the shape of a curved beam having first and second arcuate surfaces facing the same direction with the second arcuate surface being larger than the first arcuate surface, the curved beams being positioned such that during expansion tensile strain is distributed along the second arcuate surface of the curved prismatic beam; and wherein circumferentially adjacent beams joined by one circumferential link are substantially parallel prior to expansion.