To address the challenges of biopsy and intratumoral drug delivery using microdevices, a miniature multifunctional tethered device that has tissue cutting, biopsy and drug delivery capabilities is presented in this paper. The cutting module in the prototype is hydraulically powered and has an outside diameter (OD) of 2 mm at the tip and a cutter attached to 500 µm drive shaft. The hydraulic micromotor prototype was fabricated using micro additive manufacturing. It was tested using a benchtop set-up and had an average speed greater than 100,000 RPM at a water flowrate of 45 mL/min and a speed of about 34,000 RPM at 15 mL/min flowrate. This micromotor design was numerically modeled using 3D-transient simulations in ANSYS CFX to determine its performance characteristics and internal resistance. Preliminary testing was performed using cutting modules with five cutter geometries on agar tissue phantoms of different concentrations and other biological materials. The dissection ability of the cutting module, its ability to deliver particles, and collect biopsy samples were successfully demonstrated. Scaling the 2 mm OD device further, a 1 mm OD micromotor, with a nominal output shaft diameter of 250 µm, was fabricated and operated with air establishing the proof of concept.Graphical
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