Fabrication of microdevices for biomedical applications based on lithographic approach

Well established integrated circuits technologies, traditionally used in production of microprocessors, are more and more exploited in different fields, very distant from classic electronics, such as medicine and biology. However, transferring these technologies from the integrated circuit industry to other scientific fields is not trivial, since it requires large efforts to adapt traditional materials and processes to these areas or in some cases to develop and use alternative materials and processes with respect to traditional ones. The research activity presented in this PhD thesis is placed in this contest with the aim to define new fabrication procedures, combining lithographic processes of both hard and soft materials, for the realization of three innovative microdevices for biomedical applications. In particular, microneedles based devices for drug delivery and biosensing, and device for microfluidic filtration have been explored.