Development of an automated design tool for FEM-based characterization of solid and hollow microneedles

Abstract

Microneedle design for biomedical applications, such as transdermal drug delivery, vaccination and transdermal biosensing, has lately become a rapidly growing research field. In this sense, finite element analysis has been extendedly used by microneedle designers to determine the most suitable structural parameters for their prototypes, and also to predict their mechanical response and efficiency during the insertion process. Although many proposals include computer-aided tools to build geometrical models for mechanical analysis, there is a lack of software utilities intended to automate the design process encompassing geometrical modeling, simulation setup and postprocessing of results. This work proposes a novel MATLAB-based design tool for microneedle arrays that permits personalized selection of the basic characteristics of a mechanical model. The tool automatically exports the selected options to an ANSYS batch file, including instructions to run a static and a linear buckling analysis. Later, the subsequent simulation results can be retrieved for on-screen display and potential postprocessing. In addition, this work reviews recent proposals (2018-2022) about finite element model characterization of microneedles to establish the minimum set of features that any tool intended for automating a design process should provide.