A Skin-Contact-Actuated Micropump for Transdermal Drug Delivery

In this paper, a skin-contact-actuated dispenser/micropump for transdermal drug delivery applications is presented. The micropump consists of stacked polydimethylsiloxane layers mounted on a silicon substrate and operates based on the evaporation and condensation of a low-boiling-point liquid. Therefore, there is no need for a heater and a power source, since only the thermal energy provided by skin contact is required for the actuation. A prototype device with overall dimensions of 14 mm × 14 mm × 8 mm is fabricated and characterized. For a perfluoro compound working fluid (3M FC-3284), a flow rate of 28.8 μ L/min and a maximum back pressure of 28.9 kPa is measured.