Microneedles array for fluid extraction and drug delivery

Abstract

Micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are rapidly growing area of interest for a broad spectrum of applications. One particularly fast-growing area is biomedical applications for micromachining technologies. One application of interest to the biomedical industry is the development of microneedles. MEMS technology brings new means for biomedical field. The design and fabrication of the microneedle array for fluid extraction or drug delivery are presented in this paper. The hollow SU-8 microneedle array is fabricated on a glass substrate, by UV-LIGA techniques. The fabricated hollow microneedles is 300 /spl mu/m in length and 80 /spl mu/m in diameter. The microneedle provide novel biomedical analyzing method with efficiency, safety and no pain to the human skin. The microneedle array, which may be built with no-board fluid pumps, have potential applications in the chemical and biomedical fields for localized chemical analysis, programmable drug-delivery systems, and very small, precise fluids sampling.