With the growing popularity and application of microfabricated devices in oral drug delivery (ODD), masking technologies for drug loading and surface modification become highly relevant. Considering the speed of design and fabrication processes and the necessity for continuous alterations of e.g. the shape and sizes of the devices during the optimization process, there is a need for adaptable, precise and low-cost masking techniques. Here, a novel method is presented for masking ODD microdevices, namely microcontainers, using the physical characteristics of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). When compared to a rigid microfabricated shadow mask, used for filling drugs in microcontainers, the PDMS masking technique allows more facile and precise loading of higher quantities of an active compound, without the need of alignment. The method provides flexibility and is adjustable to devices fabricated from different materials with various geometries, topologies and dimensions. This user-friendly flexible masking method overcomes the limitations of other masking techniques and is certainly not limited to ODD and is recommended for a wide range of microdevices.
Keywords: Flexible masks; Microcontainers; Microfabricated devices; Oral drug delivery; Polydimethylsiloxane.