• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2018

A needle-free injector is one of the new non-invasive players in impregnating the biological barriers. It is considered as the next phase in drug delivery and therapeutic applications. One of the major fields of application is in skin remodeling procedures. Although many studies were carried out in understanding the principle in the needle-free injection procedure, fewer studies were done with the aim of therapeutic applications. In the present study, we tried to identify key parameters that affect the jet divergence and peak stagnation pressure on the skin surface in a conventional needle-free injector for skin treatment. A summary of the working principle and effect of the key parameters are presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.32-38
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• 2012

In recent years a unique drug delivery system named as the transdermal drug delivery system has been developed which can deliver drug particles to the human skin without using any external needle. The solid drug particles are accelerated by means of high speed gas flow through a shock tube imparting enough momentum so that particles can penetrate through the outer layer of the skin. Different systems have been tried and tested in order to make it more convenient for clinical use. One of them is the contoured shock tube system (CST). The contoured shock tube consists of a classical shock tube connected with a correctly expanded supersonic nozzle. A set of bursting membrane are placed upstream of the nozzle section which retains the drug particle as well as initiates the gas flow (act as a diaphragm in a shock tube). The key feature of the CST system is it can deliver particles with a controllable velocity and spatial distribution. The flow dynamics of the contoured shock tube is analyzed numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). To validate the numerical approach pressure histories in different sections on the CST are compared with the experimental results. The key features of the flow field have been studied and analyzed in details. To investigate the performance of the CST system flow behavior through the shock tube under different operating conditions are also observed.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.97-103
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• 2024

Some drugs can offer far better medical effectiveness as it is injected through the intradermal layer of the skin, known as a needle-free injection. However, conventional needle-free devices might deliver a relatively large amount of drug in a just single spot of skin, splitting open the tissue layer structure, which might cause bruising and bleeding. By injecting the small volume with a fast repetition rate in a large surface area of skin, the patient may get much fewer injuries and pain. To achieve that specification, the driving force must be instantaneous and short-pulsed. Such a form of an injection device has been developed but the efficacy of those devices has been rarely examined. Therefore, this study developed the laser-induced microjet device that ejects microjet whose speed is ~310 m/s, during the 400~800 ㎲ of pulse time. The device can eject ~1 µL of the drug at the rate at which each shot repeated 10 shots per second. Using this specification, we evaluated the efficacy of drug injection onto mouse models. After injecting the insulin solution into the mouse model, the blood insulin level is detected, resulting in 20 % of blood insulin level with the ordinary needle syringe injection method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.326-330
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• 2010

A laser based needle-free liquid drug injection device has been developed. A laser beam is focused inside the liquid contained in the rubber chamber of micro scale. The focused laser beam causes explosive bubble growth, and the sudden volume increase in a sealed chamber drives a microjet of liquid drug through the micronozzle. The exit diameter of a nozzle is 125 ${\mu}m$ and the injected microjet reaches an average velocity of 264 m/s. This device adds the time-varying feature of microjet to the current state of liquid injection for drug delivery.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.566-569
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• 2008

Recently, the biolistic process is emerging as an effective needle-free drug delivery technique to transfer adequate concentrations of pharmacologic agents to soft living tissues with minimum side effects. We have started developing an effective method for delivering drug coated particles using laser ablation. A thin metal foil with deposited micro-particles on one side is irradiated with laser beam on the opposite side so that a shock wave is generated. This shock wave travels through the foil and is reflected, which causes and instantaneous deformation of the foil. Due to such a sudden deformation, the micro-particles are ejected at a very high speed. Here we present the experimental results of direct and confined laser ablation, which correspond to the initial stage of the whole experiment.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.547-550
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• 2011

We have developed a laser-based needle-free liquid drug-injection device. A laser beam is focused inside the liquid contained in the rubber chamber of a micro-scale. The focused laser beam causes explosive bubble growth, and the sudden volume increase in a sealed chamber drives a microjet of liquid drug through the micronozzle. The exit diameter of a nozzle is less than 100 ${\mu}m$, and we verify that the injected microjet is fast enough to penetrate soft human tissue. In the experiment, the microjet penetrated a 5% gelatin-water solution that replicates the human thrombus and pork-fat tissue.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.622-627
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• 2001

Microjet flows are often encountered in many industrial applications of micro-electro-mechanical systems as well as in medical engineering fields such as a transdermal drug delivery system for needle-free injection of drugs into the skin. The Reynolds numbers of such microjets are usually several orders of magnitude below those of larger-scale jets. The supersonic microjet physics with these low Reynolds numbers are not yet understood to date. Computational modeling and simulation can provide an effective predictive capability for the major features of the supersonic microjets. In the present study, computations using the axisymmetic, compressible, Navier-Stokes equations are applied to understand the supersonic microjet flow physics. The pressure ratio of the microjets is changed to obtain both the under- and over-expanded flows at the exit of the micronozzle. Sonic and supersonic microjets are simulated and compared with some experimental results available. Based on computational results, two microjets are discussed in terms of total pressure, jet decay and supersonic core length.