Beschreibung:
Advancement in additive manufacturing (AM) is making a huge contribution to several fields, including aerospace, medical and consumer goods. The AM in the medical field is gaining more attention due to the easily customizable option (patient-specific) with low cost and fast turnout time in developing drug delivery and diagnostic tools. In this manuscript, we report the use of stereolithography 3D-printer in building a microneedle platform for customizable drug delivery/diagnostic applications. Microneedle geometry optimization with respect to different angles of printing is carried out to find the suitable 3D-printing angle. Using the suitable printing angle (30⁰), different aspect ratios (2:1, 3:1, 4:1) microneedles were printed. Obtained 3D-printed microneedles showed a needle tip diameter of ~50 µm, a base of ~330 µm, and height ~550/850/1180 µm. 3D-printed masters were used to produce PDMS molds and subsequent biopolymer microneedles (PVA- Polyvinyl alcohol). A comparison between the 3D printed microneedle and biopolymer microneedle showed variability of ~4% in tip diameter and 3% base diameter, and 15% in the height of the microneedle. Further, the 3D printing of microneedle with the different base geometries was carried out to find the robustness of the printing system