Wearable Microneedle Array With Sensing Tip Offset
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wearable medicament delivery devices lack the ability to accurately sense whether they are properly attached to a patient before and during medicament injection, leading to issues like wet injections and adverse events.
Innovation Solution
A needle array with a sensing microneedle that can minimally invasively sense characteristics such as injection depth, impedance, resistance, or capacitance, integrated into a wearable medicament delivery device, which includes a controller to prevent medicament delivery if the device is not properly attached.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a wearable medicament delivery device is used without sensing capability, then the device structure remains simple, but the device cannot accurately determine proper attachment to the patient, leading to wet injections and adverse events
Solution Approach 1:
The device is segmented into distinct functional components: injection needles for medicament delivery, sensing microneedles for attachment detection, and a controller for processing sensor data. This segmentation allows the sensing function to be added without redesigning the entire device, resolving the contradiction between reliability improvement and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
Sensing microneedles act as intermediaries between the device and patient skin, providing indirect measurement of attachment status through electrical characteristic changes. This intermediary approach enables accurate attachment detection without requiring complex direct sensing mechanisms, balancing reliability improvement with manageable device complexity
2Reliability
If sensing microneedles are used to detect attachment status, then wet injections are reduced, but the device becomes more invasive
Solution Approach 1:
The sensing microneedles have localized sensing zones at their tips that detect electrical characteristics only at the point of skin contact. This local quality approach allows minimal invasiveness while achieving reliable attachment detection, as the sensing function is concentrated at the tip rather than requiring extensive penetration or large contact areas
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical attachment detection methods with electrical field-based sensing through the sensing microneedles. This substitution reduces mechanical invasiveness while improving injection accuracy, as electrical sensing can detect attachment status without requiring deep penetration or complex mechanical sensors
3Measurement precision
If the sensing microneedle tip is offset from the injection needle tip, then attachment sensing is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensing microneedles are positioned in a different spatial arrangement relative to the injection needles, creating a multi-dimensional needle array configuration. This dimensional variation allows the sensing tips to detect attachment characteristics at offset positions, improving measurement precision while the modular array design keeps device complexity manageable through systematic positioning
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures accurate and safe medicament delivery by preventing injections if the device is not properly positioned, reducing instances of wet injections and adverse events, while maintaining minimal invasiveness and avoiding pain.
Implementation Method 1
A tip of the sensing microneedle is offset from a tip of the injection needle... configured to sense a characteristic associated with contact between the sensing microneedle and the patient... The characteristic is at least one of impedance, resistance, or capacitance
Implementation Method 2
The characteristic is at least one of impedance, resistance, or capacitance... quantified by an amount of contact between the sensing microneedle and the patient along a length of the sensing microneedle
Implementation Method 3
a pump operatively connected to the injection needle and to the container... deliver the medicament subcutaneously into the patient
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure is directed to needle arrays, wearable medicament delivery devices, and targeted methods of medicament delivery into the skin utilizing sensing microneedles. The needle array includes an injection needle that can deliver the medicament to a patient and a sensing microneedle that can sense a characteristic. The characteristic can be associated with a depth that the sensing microneedle is inserted into the patient. A tip of the sensing microneedle is offset from a tip of the injection needle.