Elsevier

Microelectronic Engineering

Volume 132, 25 January 2015, Pages 156-175
Microelectronic Engineering

Review Article
Lab-on-a-chip devices: How to close and plug the lab?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2014.10.013Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • We review two main challenges of microfluidics technology: sealing and interfacing.

  • These are crucial for commercialization and wide-spread use of microfluidics.

  • We review well-established techniques as well as recent state-of-the-art methods.

  • We discuss both research and commercial activities.

  • We provide up-to-date examples for each technology discussed.

Abstract

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices are broadly used for research in the life sciences and diagnostics and represent a very fast moving field. LOC devices are designed, prototyped and assembled using numerous strategies and materials but some fundamental trends are that these devices typically need to be (1) sealed, (2) supplied with liquids, reagents and samples, and (3) often interconnected with electrical or microelectronic components. In general, closing and connecting to the outside world these miniature labs remain a challenge irrespectively of the type of application pursued. Here, we review methods for sealing and connecting LOC devices using standard approaches as well as recent state-of-the-art methods. This review provides easy-to-understand examples and targets the microtechnology/engineering community as well as researchers in the life sciences.

Keywords

Microfluidics
Lab on a chip
Microfabrication
Sealing
Fluidic interconnect
Electrical interconnect

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