Stamp-Type Microneedle Cartridge With Pressure-Bent Needles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for delivering active ingredients or medication, such as oral administration, injection, and transdermal patches, suffer from side effects, low absorption rates, and complexity, while microneedles face challenges in formation, detachment, and bending issues, limiting their effectiveness and commercialization.
Innovation Solution
A stamp-type microneedle design featuring a pressing portion, cartridge, and substrate with bendable needles, allowing easy packaging, sterile storage, and semi-permanent use, utilizing bioabsorbable metals for enhanced skin absorption and delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If microneedles are formed on a thin metal plate, then medication delivery is enabled, but the microneedles are prone to breaking or bending when inserted into the skin
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite structure consisting of a flexible substrate with microneedles made from different materials (polymer or metal) with specific mechanical properties. The substrate provides flexibility while the needle material provides strength, creating a composite system that resolves the contradiction between ease of formation and reliability during insertion.
2Quantity of substance
If a large number of microneedles are arranged on a limited planar area, then medication delivery capacity is improved, but it becomes difficult to form and arrange the microneedles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from arranging microneedles on a two-dimensional planar surface to a three-dimensional curved or folded substrate configuration. This dimensional change allows significantly more microneedles to be packed into a compact form factor while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through techniques like embossing or molding the curved substrate.
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate is divided into multiple segments or zones with different needle densities or configurations. This segmentation allows optimization of needle arrangement in different areas, enabling high medication delivery capacity while maintaining ease of manufacture through modular design and standardized manufacturing processes for each segment.
3Ease of operation
If the microneedles are attached at an angle rather than vertically to the skin, then insertion may be easier, but the microneedles break
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible substrate that can dynamically adapt its shape during insertion. The substrate transitions from a compact stored configuration to an expanded insertion configuration, allowing the microneedles to maintain vertical orientation relative to the skin surface during insertion while enabling easy application through the dynamic shape change.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If transdermal patches are used for medication delivery, then side effects are reduced, but absorption rates are low requiring excessive medication use
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes phase transition principles by designing microneedles that transition from a solid, stable stored state to an active insertion state. The microneedles maintain structural integrity (solid phase) during storage and handling, then transition to penetrate the skin barrier, enabling high-dose medication delivery with reduced waste compared to traditional patches that rely on slow diffusion through the skin.
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 design enables easy needle bending, sterile packaging, reduced contamination risk, and improved skin absorption rates with bioabsorbable metals, providing a user-friendly and efficient medication delivery system.
Implementation Method 1
the needles provided on the substrate are bent under pressure transmitted from the pressing portion and protrude from an upper portion of the cartridge
Implementation Method 2
A stamp-type microneedle according to the disclosure includes: a pressing portion provided on an upper end of a body; a cartridge detachably coupled to the pressing portion; and a substrate disposed between the cartridge and the pressing portion and including a plurality of needles
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention comprises: a body; a pressing part protruding from the upper end of the body; a cartridge detachably coupled to the pressing part; a base plate part which is disposed between the cartridge and the pressing part, and which has a plurality of needle parts formed thereon; and a cap detachably coupled to the body while the cartridge and the pressing part are accommodated therein, wherein the needle parts formed on the base plate part are bent by the pressure transmitted from the pressing part so as to protrude from the cartridge.