Patent ID: 7549975

Claim:
A balloon catheter, comprising: a) an elongated catheter shaft having a proximal end, a distal end, an inflation lumen, and an inner tubular member with a guidewire receiving lumen therein; b) a distal tip member located at a distal end of the catheter, having a distal end, a proximal end longitudinally spaced distally apart from a distal end of the catheter shaft inner tubular member with a gap there between, and a lumen which extends to a guidewire distal port in communication with the shaft guidewire lumen, and having an inner layer formed of a first polymeric material which has a first Shore durometer hardness and which defines at least a section of the lumen of the distal tip, and an outer layer formed of a second polymeric material which is of the same polymer type as the first polymeric material and which has a lower Shore durometer hardness than the first polymeric material and which is fusion bond compatible with the first polymeric material; and c) an inflatable balloon sealingly secured to the catheter shaft so that an interior of the balloon is in fluid communication with the shaft inflation lumen, formed at least in part of a polymeric material fusion bond compatible with the first and second polymeric materials of the distal tip, and having a distal skirt section with a proximal section bonded to a distal end of the shaft inner tubular member, and with a distal section extending to a location distally spaced from the shaft inner tubular member having a distal end abutting and fusion bonded to the proximal end of the distal tip member at which both the first and second polymeric materials of the distal tip are located, such that a proximal section of the distal tip is a fused blend of the balloon distal skirt section and the inner and outer layers of the distal tip, the fused blend having both the outer layer material and inner layer material of the distal tip fused to the material of the distal skirt section along the proximal section of the distal tip, and the inner and outer layers of the distal tip extend along a distal section of the distal tip to the distal end thereof.