MICRONEEDLE

Microsystems meets medicine

 Outline
 Diabetics patients, who are dependant on multiple
injections on a daily basis
 Over 10% of the population suffer from
trypanophobia, i.e. an extreme fear of hypodermic
syringes
 Many other disease conditions require the delivery
of therapeutic agents to the skin
 Safe, painless and convenient drug delivery
 precision drug injection, clinical monitoring possible
 Outline
 engineered to mimic the painless bite of the
mosquito.
  The microneedle draws liquid by capillary
force to inject it.
At a glance
 Micro fabrication
 Traditionally microneedles made of silicon or
metals – standardized processes

 Use of polymers has received considerable

interest – biocompatibility, desirable
toughness characteristics, inexpensive, easy to
mass produce
 Polymer Microneedles
 Build the V-groove with the depth of 320μm
on silicon wafer
 Coat the SU-8 (photoresist) on the silicon
wafer with the depth of 450 μm and use the
scraper to put the SU-8 uniformly.
 Silicon wafer covered the SU-8 will be set in
the oven to break away the bubbles and
smooth the surface by heating and vacuum.
 SU-8 developer used to form the microneedles
 Polymer Microneedles
 Wafer cleaning: Mixing H2SO4 with H2O2 as the Piranha to clean the silicon wafer and heat it
up at 150 °C to remove the mist.

 Depositing the oxide and coating the photoresist: The depths of oxide and photoresist are
1 μm and 4 μm respectively.

 Photolithographic: Utilizing the first mask to develop the V-groove.

 Remove the oxide and photoresist: Using the BOE and Acetone to remove the oxide and
photoresist separately.

 KOH wet-etching: The KOH solution is 30 wt% and the temperature is set at 60°C.

 Coating the negative photoresist, SU-8: The thickness of SU-8 is 450 μm.

 The 2nd photolithographic: This process develops the position of the bottom of
microneedles.

 Departing the SU-8 from the silicon wafer: Put the silicon wafer in the MF-319 and the
microneedles will move off the silicon wafer.
 Silicon Microneedles
 {100} silicon wafer is good for wet-etching, we
choose the KOH as the etching solution with
protection layer of nitride and oxide.
 Rely on the diverse crystal orientation of silicon that
has different etching rates
 With corner compensation, we can get four (111)
planes with 54.7° between the etched facet and the
horizontal surface
 Silicon Microneedles
 Cleaning wafer to remove the hydrocarbon and the mist.

 Depositing the Oxide and Nitride with the depths are 1 and
0.2 μm respectively.

 Coating the photoresist, AZ-4620.

 Photolithographic and develop the microneedles.

 Remove the unprotected Oxide and Nitride by Reactive Ion

Etching, RIE.

 KOH wet-etching: The KOH solution is also 30 wt% at 80°C.

 Applications
 Transdermal drug delivery
 Vaccine delivery
 Polymer needle moulding
 Electrotherapy
 Optical clearing of skin
 Blood/ISF analysis
 Developments
 Dissolving micro needles

 Continuous/sustained drug delivery – linked

with a MEMS on chip micro pump

 Cost reduction

 Arrays of hollow needles for blood extraction

Dissolving Microneedles

brightfield microscopy
Continuous Drug Delivery system
Hollow needles for blood extraction
Gallery
Gallery
 Conclusion
 MEMS-based microneedles have the potential
to revolutionize biomedical/biotechnology
applications by providing precise transdermal
drug delivery and localized blood sampling.
 During the last 10 years
A lot of new and bulk fabrication processes
A lot of patents
More and more functionalities
Some industrial implementations
THANK YOU