Microfabricated devices for performing chemical and biochemical analysis

There is growing interest in microfabricated devices that perform chemical and biochemical analysis. The general goal is to use microfabrication tools to construct miniature devices that can perform a complete analysis starting with an unprocessed sample. Such devices have been referred to as lab-on-a-chip devices. Initial efforts on microfluidic laboratory-on-a-chip devices focused on chemical separations. There are many potential applications of these fluidic microchip devices. Some applications such as chemical process control or environmental monitoring would require that a chip be used over an extended period of time or for many analyses. Other applications such as forensics, clinical diagnostics, and genetic diagnostics would employ the chip devices as single use disposable devices