Microfluidics

As the microelectronic revolution changed the way how electronic components and circuits were manufactured 50 years ago, leading to an explosive growth in the applications of integrated circuits and a birth of new industries, a similar development can be seen with the introduction of miniaturization in the Life Sciences. In this article, I will limit the discussion of microfluidics to the area which was the scope of the initial concept called “miniaturized total analysis system” (μ-TAS), also called “Lab-on-a-Chip”. This technology deals with the handling and manipulation of minuscule amounts of liquid in the Life Sciences and was introduced about 20 years ago.