PFI:AIR - TT: Micro and Nanofabricated Semiconductor and Ceramic Blade Arrays for Surgical and Hair Removal Applications

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This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project focuses on translating atomically sharp disposable surgical blades through standard semiconductor processing techniques used by the microelectronics industries in Silicon Valley. The technology will address the need for low cost blades used in cataract surgery, tissue cutting and hair removal applications. The project will enable high-throughput manufacturing of ultra-sharp semiconductor and ceramic based cutting tools with associated safety features and potential integration of a variety of electrical, optical and mechanical sensors that are not possible in metal based blade platforms. Conventional metal blades used in surgical or hair removal applications experience oxidation and become blunt over time due to micro-chipping, rusting and burr formation. In cataract surgery, a single-use blade is desirable. However, surgeons in most countries re-use them on several patients due to their high cost (around US$50 per blade) emanating from a serial manufacturing process. Such practice may lead to a risk of compromising patient safety. This project will result in massively parallel blade manufacturing processes to produce several thousand identical blades from a single wafer with atomic level sharpness and ultra-long durability at a fraction of the cost of their existing counterparts. Further, the cutting edge profile, sharpness, size and angles of such blades can be fine-tuned and controlled using matured micro/nano-fabrication techniques. Blade technologies developed in this project could dramatically reduce the cost of disposable ophthalmic surgical blades and offer improved shaving experience with integrated sensors for skin and hair condition monitoring. Atomic sharpness achieved via micro-fabrication processes will play a key role in breaking the status quo in the saturated hair removal blades market.This project will pursue micromachining of silicon and ceramics to fabricate micro-ridges with atomically sharp cutting edges. Unlike the sequential polishing process using harsh chemicals for the fabrication of current blades, this project will develop and employ a massively parallel microfabrication process commonly used by the semiconductor industry. Commercialization of such blades will depend on addressing several technology gaps that this project will address. These include the (a) development of high-throughput fabrication protocol based on a combination of wet and dry etching of thick silicon and ceramic wafers along with conformal thin film coating processes with tightly controlled composition, thickness and hardness, (b) establishment of manufacturing device design space and yield geometrical window, (c) development of an early stage prototype by integrating handles to blades and packaging them cost-effectively, (d) conducting lab tests for mechanical and maneuvering stability, and (e) process development for large-scale production. Semiconductor and ceramics are rust-free, more biocompatible, micro-machinable and their applications in blade fabrication are enabled by highly matured, inexpensive and green micro-nanofabrication technology. A graduate student and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) will have the opportunity to be educated in the immersive transdisciplinary nature of this project, uniquely preparing them with training in technology translation to solve important problems in the engineering marketplace and succeed in today?s highly competitive entrepreneurship and industrial environments. The project engages a Co-PI from Graduate School of Management of UC Davis to guide this technology translation effort from research discovery toward commercial reality.