Transdermal drug delivery minimizes pain and provides a controlled, stable release of drugs, but its effectiveness is limited by the skin’s natural barriers. Microneedles overcome this problem, enabling minimally invasive drug delivery. Microneedle patches (MNPs) with 80 µm-tall needles composed of hyaluronic acid (HA) were developed and evaluated for their formability, structural integrity, dissolution rate, skin penetration ability, and drug transmission capacity. The influence of the molecular weight of HA on these properties was also investigated. MNPs made from low-molecular-weight HA (30 kDa–50 kDa) demonstrated 12.5 times superior drug permeability in ex vivo human skin compared to needleless patches (NLPs). Furthermore, in the same test, low-molecular-weight HA MNPs had 1.7 times higher drug permeability than high-molecular-weight HA MNPs, suggesting superior transdermal administration. The molecular weight of HA significantly influenced its solubility and permeability, highlighting the potential effectiveness of MNPs as drug delivery systems. Puncture tests demonstrated a penetration depth of 50–60 µm, indicating minimal nerve irritation in the dermis and effective drug delivery to the superficial dermal layer. These results present a manufacturing technique for MNPs incorporating model drug compounds and highlight their potential as a novel and minimally invasive drug delivery method for the biomedical applications of soft gels.

This study aimed to expand the resolution limits of epoxy novolac resins that have enhanced etch resistance as one of the desirable resist properties for next-generation devices. Epoxy novolac resins have high etch resistance. However, because epoxy novolac resins are either solid or semisolid at room temperature, and because the use of volatile solvents in resist can be a cause of pattern failure in nanoimprint lithography, epoxy novolac resins have been of limited utility as resist. Excellent sub-70 nm resolution patterning can be achieved by diluting 15 wt % acetone in an ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography using gas-permeable templates.