Micro-Ablation of Skin by Arc-Discharge Jet Ejection for Transdermal Drug Delivery

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a jet ejection device that operates on the actuation principle of arc discharge for the purpose of generating micron-scale pores in skin. This thermo-mechanical micro-ablation technique increases skin permeability to drugs, while expected to maintain the patient friendliness of conventional transdermal patches. Laser micromachining and lamination techniques were utilized in fabricating these arc-discharge jet ejection devices. The released jet from the device is characterized in terms of its force, velocity and temperature and is used in skin ablation experiments. The skin is exposed to the jet and the permeability effects are characterized. Skin permeability was increased by approximately three orders of magnitude after jet exposure when compared to non-exposed controls, which is a significant advance for transdermal drug delivery.