A method of fabricating a sharpened microneedle using in-plane manufacturing techniques. The method includes depositing at least one layer of photoresist on a broad surface of a substrate, and the photoresist is subsequently patterned to define features of the microneedle. A first etching treatment in the form of deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) is applied to etch the substrate into first structure where the etching depth is less than the substrate total depth so as to create at least one sacrificial feature adjacent to the portions of the substrate under the photoresist. A second etching treatment in the form of isotropic wet etching is subsequent applied where the etching of the at least one sacrificial feature causes a gradual variation in etching rate along the length of the microneedle such that the tip of the microneedle is sharpened.
