Investigations of development process of high hollow beveled microneedles using a combination of ICP RIE and dicing saw

Micromachined needles provide a promising technology for painless delivery of molecules or foreign substance into a living cell. Over the recent years, a variety of different microneedle shapes and materials have been studied and have shown their facility to disrupt stratum corneum layer to increase the skin permeability. In this paper, we described an alternative process to fabricate high and beveled hollow out-of-plane microneedles. Silicon microneedles dimensions are 40-60 mu m in inner diameter, 150-200 mu m in outer diameter and over 700 mu m in height. Tip angles reached are from 30 degrees to 45 degrees.