Identifier

etd-07082010-112039

Degree

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Inhaled drug is an important drug delivery route. It is widely used in medications for respiratory disorders. However, it has some significant limitations, for examples, concentration of drug, output, and particles size, are not accurately controlled in most of the available drug delivery systems today. Various new devices and technologies continue to be developed and introduced. Vibrating orifice is one of them. The critical issue of vibrating orifice technology is the fabrication of micro-nozzles. Traditional technique to fabricate these nozzles is to use dry etching method, which tends to be expensive and inconvenient for mass production. Other two optional fabrication methods are presented in this thesis. The first one was to fabricate grooves using electro-spark etching to make array of micro-needles. This array of needles was then used as pressing mold to make nozzles. The size of these nozzles could be further manipulated using electroplating method. The second approach was to pattern array of micro-columns on a thick photoresist using UV lithography first, metals, such as nickel, are then plated to fill up the open area on the substrate. Finally the remaining SU-8 micro-columns were removed either by chemical stripping or simply burning away. Very thin wires were then inserted through these micro-holes and used in electric discharge process to make arrays of micro-holes on substrate of copper or other metal plates. This method could be used to fabricate large arrays of nozzles matching the pattern of the mold. The experimental results showed that both two methods are feasible. Further work is required to improve the technology.

Date

2010

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Wang, Wanjun

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2805

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