Hot embossing and mechanical punching of biodegradable microcontainers for oral drug delivery

• Si stamp with pillars using the standard Si manufacturing techniques is fabricated.
• The stamp is embossed in biodegradable polymer film to fabricate microholes.
• Mechanical punches are produced using wire electrical discharge milling.
• The film with microholes is punched to fabricate microcontainers for drug delivery.
• Fabrication process described here is versatile, drug-friendly and mass producible.

A process has been developed to fabricate discrete three-dimensional microcontainers for oral drug delivery application in Poly-l-Lactic Acid (PLLA) polymer. The method combines hot embossing for the definition of holes in a PLLA film and mechanical punching to penetrate the polymer layer around the holes, after filling them with drug. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of microcontainers with a diameter of 340 μm and a height of 50 μm. The process is temperature benign so that the compositional integrity of the drug is preserved. It also provides a good flexibility for creating different sizes and shapes of microcontainers. Finally, the process is compatible with roll-to-roll processing that could lead to low cost high volume production.

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