As the world looks to vaccines to help address the continued COVID outbreak, the healthcare industry is using KLA’s technologies and equipment to develop future solutions. SPTS Technologies, a KLA company, and the researchers at University of Swansea in Wales, UK, have developed hollow, silicon microneedles for “pain-free” drug delivery through the skin. Researchers are using the microneedles, produced using SPTS’s etch and deposition technologies, to develop a “smart patch” that can deliver a coronavirus or other vaccine through the skin and monitor its efficacy by measuring the body’s immune response. The research team is expecting prototypes in March 2021, and is aiming for clinical trials and commercial production.

Check out the coverage by the BBC on the smart patch to learn more, or read SPTS’s technical paper illustrating the microneedle fabrication process below:

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