Personalised Airway and Lung Management (PALM): tuning the particle size on-demand for effective aerosol delivery
Tuncay Alan1, Jason Brenker1, Hoai Nguyen An Le1, Abanoub Shenoda1, Jackson Gum1, Juhura G. Al-mazi2, Sonia Pal1, Hui Xin Ong2, Daniela Traini2
1Monash University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Melbourne VIC, 3800 Australia
2Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, 431 Glebe Point Road Glebe NSW 2037,Australia
Summary
We present a new aerosol delivery platform: Personalised Airway and Lung Management (PALM), which can atomise liquids on-demand and generate aerosol particles with controlled diameters (WO2020019030A1). The devices comprises of microfabricated, hydrophilic channels placed on top of a piezoelectric substrate. Upon actuation, a controlled volume of fluid can be drawn into the device through a rapid capillary driven flow. Consequent high frequency vibration of the fluid/air interface results in a mist of micrometer-diameter droplets to be ejected. The devices are breath actuated and very importantly, the droplet size can be tuned on-demand by modifying the actuation parameters, allowing personalised therapy. The aerosol generation chip, piezoelectric driving element, associated driving electronics and sensing components are integrated into a small form factor device, which comfortably fits into the palm of a hand.
Key Message
The breath actuated portable device can continuously draw liquids from a wide variety of external reservoirs via acoustically enhanced capillary filling. This minimises the dead volume and ensures consistent operation without requiring external pumping. The mean diameter of the generated droplets can be tuned on-demand by dialling the actuation parameters.