Patent ID: 7740795

Claim:
A method of forming a porous scaffold for use in an implantable medical device, said method comprising: a) providing a polymer foam having a pre-determined thickness and webs defining a pore size ranging from about 500 μm to about 2000 μm; b) forming a skin of biocompatible metal on the webs of said polymer foam by low temperature arc vapor deposition LTAVD); c) heating said polymer foam and said metal skin above the decomposition temperature of said polymer foam in an inert gas atmosphere to decompose the polymer foam to form a porous metal network; and thickening webs of the porous metal network by applying a solution of a binder onto said webs, applying a biocompatible metal powder having a particle size of between 40 and 80 μm to the webs of the porous metal network, and sintering said metal powder covered metal network to form a porous coating on the webs to produce a porous scaffold wherein the webs define a pore size of 100 to 1000 μm.