Manufacturing method of microstructure
10231879 ยท 2019-03-19
Assignee
Inventors
- Hong Kee Kim (Gunpo-si, KR)
- Jung Dong KIM (Seoul, KR)
- Jung Hyun BAE (Seoul, KR)
- Yang Gi Lee (Seoul, KR)
- So Hyun PARK (Incheon, KR)
- Do Hyeon Jeong (Seoul, KR)
Cpc classification
B32B2535/00
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
A61F13/0276
HUMAN NECESSITIES
A61K9/0021
HUMAN NECESSITIES
B32B38/10
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B32B37/12
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
International classification
A61K9/00
HUMAN NECESSITIES
B32B37/12
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
Abstract
A manufacturing method of a microstructure includes providing a patch manufacturing sheet formed in a state in which a bottom layer is exposed on an upper part thereof; providing the patch manufacturing sheet on a first process substrate and a second process substrate; spotting a viscous composition at a plurality of positions spaced apart from each other on the bottom layer of the patch manufacturing sheet provided on only the first process substrate, or provided on both of the first process substrate and the second process substrate; contacting the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the second process substrate or the viscous composition to the viscous composition spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate; moving relatively the second process substrate with respect to the first process substrate to stretch the viscous composition and to coagulate the stretched viscous composition; and cutting the coagulated viscous composition.
Claims
1. A manufacturing method of a microstructure, comprising: providing a patch manufacturing sheet formed in a state in which a bottom layer is exposed; subsequently providing the patch manufacturing sheet on a first process substrate and a second process substrate; subsequently spotting a viscous composition at a plurality of positions spaced apart from each other on the bottom layer with respect to only the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate, or at a plurality of positions spaced apart from each other on each of the bottom layers with respect to both of the patch manufacturing sheets provided on the first process substrate and the patch manufacturing sheets provided on the second process substrate; contacting the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the second process substrate to the viscous composition spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate, or contacting the viscous composition, which is spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the second process substrate, to the viscous composition spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate; separating relatively a vertical direction distance between the first process substrate and the second process substrate to stretch the viscous composition and to coagulate the stretched viscous composition; and cutting the coagulated viscous composition, wherein the providing of the patch manufacturing sheet formed in a state in which the bottom layer is exposed includes: providing the patch manufacturing sheet including a supporting layer, an adhesive layer, and a peeling film; removing a portion of the peeling film of the patch manufacturing sheet to expose the adhesive layer; and attaching the bottom layer to the exposed adhesive layer, wherein the bottom layer is manufactured to correspond to a size and a shape of the exposed adhesive layer.
2. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the patch manufacturing sheet on the first process substrate and the second process substrate vacuum suctions the patch manufacturing sheet, which is stored on a sheet storing substrate and to which the bottom layer is attached, using a robot arm to move to the first process substrate and the second process substrate.
3. The manufacturing method of claim 2, wherein a hole is formed at the patch manufacturing sheet to which the bottom layer is attached, the patch manufacturing sheet to which the bottom layer is attached is passed through the hole by a bar, which is vertically formed at the sheet storing substrate, thereby being stored on the sheet storing substrate in a stacked manner, and the bar guides a vertical movement of the patch manufacturing sheet to which the bottom layer is attached while the robot arm vacuum suctions and vertically moves the patch manufacturing sheet to which the bottom layer is attached.
4. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein a top surface of the bottom layer is flush with a top surface of the peeling film after the bottom layer is attached to the exposed adhesive layer.
5. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein the bottom layer has a uniform thickness and maintains the uniform thickness when the bottom layer is attached to the exposed adhesive layer.
6. The manufacturing method of claim 1, wherein removing a portion of the peeling film of the patch manufacturing sheet to expose the adhesive layer comprises: attaching the peeling film on the adhesive layer, the peeling film including a cutting plane line corresponding to the portion of the peeling film; and removing the portion of the peeling film from the adhesive layer.
7. A manufacturing method of a microstructure, comprising: providing a patch manufacturing sheet formed in a state in which an adhesive layer is exposed; subsequently providing the patch manufacturing sheet on a first process substrate and a second process substrate; subsequently spotting a viscous composition at a plurality of positions spaced apart from each other on the adhesive layer with respect to only the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate, or at a plurality of positions spaced apart from each other on each of the adhesive layers with respect to both of the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate and the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the second process substrate; contacting the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the second process substrate to the viscous composition spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate, or contacting the viscous composition, which is spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the second process substrate, to the viscous composition spotted on the patch manufacturing sheet provided on the first process substrate; separating relatively a vertical direction distance between the first process substrate and the second process substrate to stretch the viscous composition and to coagulate the stretched viscous composition; and cutting the coagulated viscous composition, wherein an adhesive configuring the adhesive layer is a hydrophilic material, and wherein the providing of the patch manufacturing sheet formed in a state in which the adhesive layer is exposed includes: providing the patch manufacturing sheet including a supporting layer, the adhesive layer, and a peeling film; and removing a portion of the peeling film of the patch manufacturing sheet to expose the adhesive layer.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
(1) The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
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(7)
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(8) The following detailed description with respect to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings illustrating as examples of specific embodiments which can implement the present disclosure. These embodiments will be fully described in detail for allowing a person skilled in the art to implement the present disclosure. It should be understood that various embodiments of the present disclosure are different from each other, but they are not to be exclusive mutually. For example, specific shapes, structures, and features disclosed herein may be implemented by another embodiment in association with one embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Also, it should be understood that positions and arrangements of respective components disclosed in each embodiment may be modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. The detailed description to be disclosed later, therefore, is not to be taken in a sense for limiting the scope of the present disclosure but for explanation thereof, and the scope of the present disclosure should be construed by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In giving reference numerals to components of the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals are given to components having the same or similar functions throughout various aspects.
(9) Hereinafter, for easily implementing the present disclosure by those skilled in the art, various preferable embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
(10)
(11) A top view and a cross-sectional view of the patch manufacturing sheet 30 are shown in
(12) An adhesive layer 32 is located on an upper surface of the supporting layer 31. An adhesive used in the adhesive layer 32 is configured with a pressure sensitive adhesive component that is pharmaceutically usable, and a hydrophilic or organic solvent material and the like may be used. As such an adhesive polymer material, an acrylate based resin including an acrylate polymer, a vinyl acetate-acrylate copolymer and the like, a copolymer resin including a polyisobutylene, polystyrene, or polybutadiene copolymer, a rosin based resin, a polyterpene resin, a petroleum based resin, a terpene phenol resin, a silicon polymer, and a natural or synthetic rubber, or a mixture thereof may be used. A single adhesive polymer material or two or more mixed adhesive polymer material may be used.
(13) A peeling film 33 is formed on an upper surface of the adhesive layer 32. As shown in
(14) If the providing of the patch manufacturing sheet 30 of the structure described above is a first procedure of the manufacturing process, the removing of the central oval portion of the peeling film 33 using the pre-formed cutting plane line thereof is a second procedure, and this second procedure corresponds to a second diagram from a left side of
(15) Next, a bottom layer 34 is covered on the exposed adhesive layer 32. The term of the bottom layer 34 is used as a meaning of a bottom at which a microstructure is formed. The bottom layer 34 is come into contact with an adhesive of the adhesive layer 32 to maintain a firm coupled state. The bottom layer 34 may be any film having a hydrophilic surface so as to allow a microstructure to be formed thereon. Preferably, the bottom layer 34 may be any film having a constant and uniform thickness and a hydrophilic group on a surface thereof. More preferably, the bottom layer 34 may be a hydrophilic polymer film having stretchability of a proper level so as to be tightly attached to a curved portion.
(16) One of features of the present disclosure is that the bottom layer 34 may be manufactured in advance in a separate process from a microstructure forming process to be attached to the patch manufacturing sheet 30, without being manufactured by the applying procedure of a hydrophilic viscous material and the drying procedure in the microstructure forming process as described in the related art.
(17) According to the method of the present disclosure, the bottom layer 34 may be coupled to each of a plurality of exposed adhesive layers 32 which are formed at the patch manufacturing sheet 30, whereas, in order to reduce a time required for a process and to increase accuracy of a coupling, the bottom layer 32 and the exposed adhesive layer 32 may be coupled to each other with a method shown in
(18) In
(19) In addition to the above described method, after the sheet at which the plurality of bottom layers 34 have been formed is inverted to be come into contact with the patch manufacturing sheet 30 having the exposed adhesive layers 32, an inverted sheet surface (a surface of the sheet opposite to a surface thereof at which the plurality of bottom layers 34 have been formed) of the sheet is pressurized by means of a pressurizing device so that a contact state between the bottom layer 34 and the exposed adhesive layer 32 may be certainly accomplished. The pressurizing device may be, for example, a roller type or a flat type. When such a pressurizing method is employed, a forming of a strong contact state may be secured and also a constant pressure is pressurized to an entire of the bottom layer 34 of which is important to be formed with a uniform thickness so that a function of eliminating a certain amount of non-uniformity, which might exist in a thickness of the bottom layer 34 coupled to the patch manufacturing sheet 30, may be performed before the bottom layer 34 is input to the microstructure manufacturing process.
(20) Before being provided to the manufacturing process of the patch manufacturing sheet 30 according to the present disclosure as described above, the bottom layer 34 may be undergone a quality control (QC) process that inspects whether or not the thickness and the like of the bottom layer 34 are manufactured to satisfy a predetermined criterion. Consequently, it may be possible to previously prevent a defect of the microstructure, which may occur when the thickness of the bottom layer 34 being a basis of the formation of the microstructure does not satisfies the predetermined criterion.
(21) A plurality of patch manufacturing sheets 30, each of which is formed to be coupled to the bottom layer 34, may be manufactured and then they are provided by one at a time or at the same time to the microstructure forming process. For example, they may be provided to the microstructure forming process under a state as shown in
(22) When the plurality of patch manufacturing sheets 30 being stacked as in the state described above are provided to the microstructure forming process, as a first procedure of the microstructure forming process, for example, a robot arm including a vacuum suction unit 42 downwardly moves to vacuum suction an upper surface of each of the stored patch manufacturing sheets 30 and then it moves upwardly so that the individual patch manufacturing sheet 30 is guided and upwardly moved along the bars 41 through the holes formed at upper and lower parts of the individual patch manufacturing sheet 30, thereby escaping from the stored state. Because an actuator 43 performing upward, downward, left, and right movements is controlled by a controller, the robot arm may be able to exactly deliver the patch manufacturing sheet 30 to a predetermined substrate position in the microstructure forming process. Meanwhile, in addition that the plurality of patch manufacturing sheets 30 are stacked to be provided to the process as described above, it should be understood that various type process provision methods may be applicable. For example, a single patch manufacturing sheet 30 may be provided to the process in a state of being stored on the sheet storing substrate 40.
(23) A microstructure forming process on the patch manufacturing sheet 30 according to the present disclosure is shown in
(24) First, a robot arm approaches and grips the patch manufacturing sheet 30, which is stored on the sheet storing substrate 40 and to which the bottom layer 34 was coupled, using a vacuum suction unit (Operation (a)).
(25) And then, the robot arm moves to a position at which the microstructure forming process is performing, and downwardly moves to seat the patch manufacturing sheet 30, to which the bottom layer 34 was coupled, on a first process substrate 50 (Operation (b)).
(26) Thereafter, a forming of a base structure layer is performed. The base structure layer is formed by spotting a viscous material on the patch manufacturing sheet 30 to which the bottom layer 34 was coupled. When a microstructure to be used for medical and pharmaceutical purposes is manufactured such as the microneedle according to the present embodiment, a viscous material may be preferable to include a biocompatible or biodegradable material. Here, the biocompatible material means a material having no toxicity to a human body and a chemical inert property. And, the biodegradable material means a material that can be decomposed within a human body by body fluid, enzyme, microorganism, or the like.
(27) Also, in accordance with the present embodiment, the viscous material may be preferable to be dissolved in a proper solvent to appear viscosity. In other words, among materials appearing viscosity, viscosity may appear in a state of being melted by heat, but it may appear by dissolving in a solvent.
(28) The viscous material may include hyaluronic acid or its salt, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl alcohol, cellulose polymer, dextran, gelatin, glycerine, polyethylene glycol, polysorbate, propylene glycol, povidone, carbomer, gum ghatti, guar gum, glucomannan, glucosamine, dammar gum, rennet casein, locust bean gum, microfibrillated cellulose, psyllium seed gum, xanthan gum, arabino galactan, arabic gum, alginic acid, gelatin, gellan gum, carrageenan, karaya gum, curdlan, chitosan, chitin, tara gum, tamarind gum, tragacanth gum, furcelleran, pectin, pullulan and the like.
(29) More preferably, the viscous material used in the present disclosure may be hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, hydroxyalkyl cellulose, ethyl hydroxyethylcellulose, alkyl cellulose, and carboxymethyl cellulose. Most preferably, the viscous material used in the present disclosure may be carboxymethyl cellulose.
(30) Also, the solvent for dissolving the viscous material is not specifically limited, and water, absolute or hydrous lower alcohol containing between 1 and 4 carbon atoms, acetone, ethyl acetate, chloroform, 1,3-butylene glycol, hexane, diethyl ether, or butyl acetate may be used as the solvent, and preferably, water or lower alcohol may be used as the solvent, and most preferably, water may be used as the solvent.
(31) In the forming of a base structure layer, as shown in Operations (c) and (d) of
(32) As an amount of the viscous material used for forming the base structure layer 35 is gradually increased, a diameter of the base structure layer 35 is increased. And, as described later, in order to spot a large amount of a viscous composition containing a functional material on the base structure layer 35, it may be preferable to largely form the diameter of the base structure layer 35. The reason is that the viscous composition overflows outside the base structure layer 35 when a large amount of the viscous composition is spotted in a state that the diameter of the base structure layer 35 is small, thereby causing a loss of the functional material that should be delivered to the human body. Meanwhile, the base structure layer 35 may be formed as high as a desired height by repeating the method for spotting and coagulating the viscous material for forming the base structure layer 35 after the base structure layer 35 has been formed through the coagulation of the viscous material.
(33) In the embodiment of
(34) When a drug is mixed with the viscous composition, the forming of the base structure layer 35 is omitted and a microneedle is formed with only the functional material layer 36 so that the drug is uniformly distributed to an entire of the microneedle. In this case, the drug contained in a lower end part of the microneedle may not be totally absorbed into the skin and thus may reside on the bottom layer 34 to reduce a dose amount of a drug so that it may be preferable to form the base structure layer 35 so as to maximize absorbability of a drug. On the other hand, when the drug is not mixed with the viscous composition, or a need for controlling a dose amount is relatively low, the forming of the base structure layer 35 may be omitted so as to simplify the process and increase efficiency. In Operation (e) of
(35) In Operation (f) of
(36) The seating of the patch manufacturing sheet 30 on the second process substrate 60 may be performed by the robot arm as similar to the seating of the patch manufacturing sheet 30 on the first process substrate 50. The robot arm may suction and support a single patch manufacturing sheet 30 stored on the sheet storing substrate 40 or a plurality of patch manufacturing sheets 30 which are stacked and stored thereon to seat on a predetermined exact position on the second process substrate 60. As shown in Operation (f) of
(37) In Operation (g) of
(38) After the stretching and the full coagulating of the functional material layer 36 are completed, a portion having a minimum diameter of the functional material layer 36 is cut as shown in Operation (i) of
(39) When Operations described with reference to
(40) The patch manufacturing sheet 30, at which such a microstructure was formed, may be subject to a packaging treatment for protecting the microstructure formed on the sheet, thereby immediately being commercialized.
(41) In the related art, in the course of separating a bottom layer from a substrate, damage to the bottom layer itself or damage to a microstructure formed on the bottom layer was frequently generated. On the other hand, according to the method of the present disclosure, the supporting layer 31, which is to form a body of a patch product when being used as the patch product in the future, is formed in plural numbers on the patch manufacturing sheet 30, the patch manufacturing sheet 30 is provided to the microstructure manufacturing process in a state in which the bottom layer 34 is coupled in advance to the supporting layer 31, and the microstructure is formed on the strong basis so that it may hardly damage the bottom layer 34 and the microstructure in the course of being separated from the substrate after the forming process of the microstructure is completed.
(42) Next, another embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to
(43) As described above, a bottom layer 34 is a component serving a function of a bottom at which a microstructure is formed, and it may be any film having a hydrophilic surface so as to allow the microstructure to be formed on the bottom layer 34. Also, such a bottom layer 34 is attached to an adhesive layer 32 which is exposed by removing a central portion of a peeling film 33 along a cutting plane line formed on the peeling film 33 that is a component of a patch manufacturing sheet 30 in the above described embodiment.
(44) The present embodiment is characterized in that a viscous material configuring the adhesive layer 32 is made of a hydrophilic material that allows the microstructure to be formed thereon instead of not forming the bottom layer 34 separately.
(45) By comparing with the embodiment of
(46) In the embodiment of
(47) As described above, when the viscous material configuring the adhesive layer 32 is made of the hydrophilic material that allows the microstructure to be formed thereon, there is an advantage in that the manufacturing process of the patch manufacturing sheet 30 is simplified.
(48) The hydrophilic material configuring the adhesive layer 32, which may be usable in the present embodiment, is an adhesive polymer material having a hydrophilic group. Preferably, the hydrophilic material configuring the adhesive layer 32, which may be usable in the present embodiment, may be a hydrophilic adhesive polymer material which is medically and pharmaceutically usable and has pressure sensitivity. For example, a commercially available product containing an acrylate group resin such as an acrylate polymer, a vinyl acetate-acrylate copolymer, and the like may be used.
(49) As described above, the patch manufacturing sheet 30 at which the bottom layer 34 is not separately formed may be implemented in a double layer of the base structure layer 35 and the functional material layer 36, and also it may be implemented to functionally omit the base structure layer 35.