Drug-loaded cubic micro-chamber made of a biodegradable polymer for bacteria-based drug delivery

In this paper, a novel method of fabricating a drug-loaded, cubic micro-chamber made of biodegradable polymer for bacteria-based drug delivery is presented. A biodegradable polymer, poly-capro-lactone (PCL), is used to fabricate the micro-structure. The biocompatibility of PCL is approved by the Food and Drug Administration in U.S. for use in humans. To fabricate the drug-loaded cubic micro-chamber, laminated PCL films are prepared, and a drug is encapsulated between the films using the inkjet printing method. Generally, PCL cannot easy be micromachined by a conventional photolithography technique. Therefore, an x-ray lithography process is developed to fabricate the cubic structure. The fabrication results indicate that the proposed method is excellent for microfabricating drug-loaded cubic micro-chambers made of the biodegradable PCL polymer for bacteria-based drug delivery.