Silicon-Based Fabrication of Biodegradable Polymer for Controlled Drug-Delivery

Methods to fabricate biodegradable polymer microparticles with well-defined structures could offer significant impact in the field of drug delivery. To create a controlled drug-release system, drugs are usually encapsulated by a biodegradable polymer whose physical properties can be tailored to obtain desired release kinetics. Most of the current approaches to create such drug delivery systems are via emulsion methods, but they have limitations in completely entrapping the drugs inside the particle core and controlling geometry of the polymeric microstructures. Here, we present a new scheme to create microparticles of biodegradable polylactic-co-glycolic acid polymer with a precise control over the particle’s structure. We use microfabrication techniques to create a Silicon micromold and use a heat-pressing process to transfer the mold’s features to the polymer. Our method relies solely on common materials for fabricating electronic chips (e.g. Silicon) and doesn’t require any other special synthetic materials. This method is versatile as it is applicable to many types of polymers, thereby offering a platform technology to create microcapsules with well-defined structures for controlled drug-release systems.