Surface micromachined metallic microneedles

In this paper, a method for fabricating surface micromachined, hollow, metallic microneedles is described. Single microneedle and multiple microneedle arrays with process enabled features such as complex tip geometries, micro barbs, mechanical penetration stops and multiple fluid output ports were fabricated, packaged and characterized. The microneedles were fabricated using electroplated metals including palladium, palladium-cobalt alloys and nickel as structural materials. The microneedles were 200 mm-2.0 cm in length with a cross-section of 70-200 mum in width and 75-120 mum in height, with a wall thickness of 30-35 mum. The microneedle arrays were typically 9.0 mm in width and 3.0 mm in height with between 3 and 17 needles per array. Using water as the fluid medium, the average inlet pressure was found to be 30.0 KPa for a flow rate of 1000 muL/h and 106 KPa for a flow rate 4000 muL/h.