Hypotubes for use with intra-corporal medical devices are fabricated from a stainless steel alloy exhibiting a combination of excellent yield strength with improved ductility as compared to cold worked AISI 304 stainless steel, from which hypotubes are typically fabricated. The stainless steel alloy may have: (1) a nitrogen content, a carbon content, or a combined nitrogen and carbon content that is greater than that allowed in AISI 304 stainless steel, providing an increased concentration of interstitial atoms to stabilize dislocations generated by cold work and/or (2) a combined nickel and manganese content that is lower than that allowed in AISI 304 stainless steel to reduce the stability of the austenitic structure, enabling a greater percentage of martensite to be stress-induced by a given level of cold work as compared to AISI 304 SS. Following cold working, the alloy may be heat treated to raise its yield strength by strain aging.
