Design, Development, and Testing of Polymeric Microblades: A Novel Design of Microneedles for Biomedical Applications.

Conventional microneedles (MNs) are designed as an array of micrometer‐sized projections that can painlessly penetrate the skin. Fabrication of MN arrays can be costly and time‐consuming; additionally, full penetration of an array of MNs with ten to thousands of projections into the skin may not be achievable. This paper reports a new design of MNs known as microblades (MBs) which consist of a singular microstructure. The single integrated design of the MBs reduces the fabrication cost and time, facilitates more effective penetration, and may pave the way for the scale‐up manufacturing of MN devices. Different designs of MBs are fabricated by two‐photon polymerization technique, followed by polydimethylsiloxane micromolding and soft embossing to create replicas. The mechanical integrity of the designs is determined by a series of compression tests. Skin insertion and drug diffusion studies are conducted using a custom‐made applicator to insert the MBs into the porcine abdominal skin to demonstrate delivery of fluorescein tracer. MBs insertion and penetration capabilities and the diffusion of a model drug into a multi‐layered human skin are demonstrated using finite element analysis and 3D diffusion models. The results demonstrate the functional capabilities of the MBs as an alternative to MN arrays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]