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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Nov 2.
Published in final edited form as: Lab Chip. 2008 Sep 19;8(11):1864–1878. doi: 10.1039/b806446f

Table 2.

Microfabricated implants used for drug delivery. An * indicated related references.

Tissue System Description Microfabrication
Method(s)		 Feature Size Reference
Cardio-Vascular Biodegradable and biocompatible mesoporous silicon particles
that have well-controlled shapes, sizes and pores are loaded with
Q-dots and single walled carbon nanotubes for combination
imaging and therapeutic delivery.		 Micromachining and
photolithography		 5 µm in diameter with 50
nm pores		 87
Multiple A biodegradable PLGA 3-layer device comprised of a diffusion
control layer via micro-orifices, diffusion layer, and drug
reservoir layers.		 Micromolding Orifices on the order of
100 µm		 109
Orthopedic bFGF was delivered 40 ng/day on average over four weeks from
a biodegradable osmotic pump PLGA MEMs device.		 Micromolding 50×50 µm2 reservoir, 25
µm deep		 79
Multiple Drug eluting microparticles of PEG, PLA and poly-(pyrrole)
molded from photocurable perfluoropolyether.		 Photolithography and
Micromolding		 >200 nm 85
Oral Drug Delivery Asymmetric, multilayer microdevices for oral delivery of made
of SU-8, PMMA and PLGA with a protected reservoir for
therapeutic delivery.		 Photolithography 150×150×8 µm3 32, 33, 80, 81, 91–
93, 95
Oral Drug Delivery An asymmetric silicon microdevice for oral delivery of
therapeutics with a protected reservoir.		 Micromachining 50×50×2 µm3 thick with
25×25×1 µm3 deep wells		 94
Hepatic A silicon nanochanneled delivery system for zero order release of
IFN-α.		 Micromachining Nanochannel of 100 nm 114
16, 110, 112, 113*
Dermal PLA, PGA and PLGA microneedles increased dermal
permeability almost 3 orders of magnitude.		 Micromolding 570 µm high needle with
beveled diameter of 10 µm		 99
30, 97–102*
Multiple A solid-state silicon microchip that provides controlled release of
single or multiple chemical substances through the
electrochemical dissolution of thin anode membranes covering
micro-reservoirs filled with chemicals in solid, liquid or gel form.		 Photolithography,
CVD, and
micromachining		 Reservoirs on the order of
70 microns		 38
48, 116, 117*
Cardio-Vascular Silicon based needles that penetrate into the internal elastic
lamina of normal arteries or atherosclerotic plaques to deliver
DNA.		 Micromachining 80 µm high, with a radius
of curvature of <0.1 µm		 86
97, 98*
Neural Silicon based multi-channel neural probe for therapeutic delivery
on the order of 100 pL in 1 second.		 Micromachining 10 µm features with
channel length of 4 mm		 107