Hollow polymer microneedle array fabricated by photolithography process combined with micromolding technique.
Transdermal drug delivery through microneedles is a minimally invasive procedure causing little or no pain, and is a potentially attractive alternative to intramuscular and subdermal drug delivery methods. This paper demonstrates the fabrication of a hollow microneedle array using a polymer-based process combining UV photolithography and replica molding techniques. The key characteristic of the proposed fabrication process is to define a hollow lumen for microfluidic access via photopatterning, allowing a batch process as well as high throughput. A hollow SU-8 microneedle array, consisting of 825mum tall and 400 mum wide microneedles with 15-25 mum tip diameters and 120 mum diameter hollow lumens was designed, fabricated and characterized.
Wang
Po-Chun
PC
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. pwang36@gatech.edu
Wester
Brock A
BA
Rajaraman
Swaminathan
S
Paik
Seung-Joon
SJ
Kim
Seong-Hyok
SH
Allen
Mark G
MG
D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D009339:Needles; D010781:Photography; D011108:Polymers
D011108:Polymers