A Portable Drug Delivery System with Silicon Capillaries as Key Components

A portable drug delivery system for small dosing rates employing the over pressure principle was developed. The over pressure is generated by a conventional spring actuation. A disposable silicon micro channel fabricated by a single mask process is used as a well defined flow resistance. A method to mount standard LUER connectors to the silicon micro channels by insert plastic moulding was developed. At a continuous dosing rate of the drug delivery system of 1 µl/min a continuous drug flow of nearly five days becomes possible with a drug volume of 6,5 ml. Pressure generation units and silicon capillaries were fabricated and tested. After sterilisation of the capillaries the drug delivery system is evaluated in vivo in clinical studies. Two medical applications were chosen to verify the advantages of the dosing principle.