MEMS based system for drug delivery

This paper presents the new design of transdermal drug delivery system. The system consists of integrated control electronics and microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices such as micropump, microneedles, blood pressure sensor and fluid flow sensor. Micropump and microneedles are essential components of proposed drug delivery system. Design, analysis, fabrication and characterization of piezoelectric valveless micropump and hollow out-of-plane silicon microneedles are presented in this study. The analysis of micropump has been done by building three dimensional electro-fluid-solid model. The performance of micropump has been characterized in terms of actuator deflection and flow rate at different operational parameters. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) technology has been used for microneedles fabrication. Structural analysis of microneedle has been performed to investigate the mechanical strength of microneedles design. The results of the present study provide valuable benchmark and predicted data to fabricate optimized designs of MEMS based transdermal drug delivery system.