Integrated system on silicon for electrically controlled drug delivery

Abstract

The development of implantable devices for controlled drug delivery is of great interest for medicine applications. Some drug delivery systems already exist and there are based on in vivo degradation of different biomaterials such as polymers or porous silicon; the drug release over a period of time is realised via out-diffusion and/or degradation of the impregnated material. In this paper a new integrated system on silicon substrate is presented: it consists of a microreservoir array filled with drugs which have metallic caps, and the release of drugs is electrically controlled.