The manipulation of fluids in channels with dimensions of tens of micrometres--microfluidics--has emerged as a distinct new field. Microfluidics has the potential to influence subject areas from chemical synthesis and biological analysis to optics and information technology. But the field is still at an early stage of development. Even as the basic science and technological demonstrations develop, other problems must be addressed: choosing and focusing on initial applications, and developing strategies to complete the cycle of development, including commercialization. The solutions to these problems will require imagination and ingenuity.

The origins and the future of microfluidics

This paper describes a procedure that makes it possible to design and fabricate (including sealing) microfluidic systems in an elastomeric materialpoly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)in less than 24 h. A network of microfluidic channels (with width >20 μm) is designed in a CAD program. This design is converted into a transparency by a high-resolution printer; this transparency is used as a mask in photolithography to create a master in positive relief photoresist. PDMS cast against the master yields a polymeric replica containing a network of channels. The surface of this replica, and that of a flat slab of PDMS, are oxidized in an oxygen plasma. These oxidized surfaces seal tightly and irreversibly when brought into conformal contact. Oxidized PDMS also seals irreversibly to other materials used in microfluidic systems, such as glass, silicon, silicon oxide, and oxidized polystyrene; a number of substrates for devices are, therefore, practical options. Oxidation of the PDMS has the additional advantage that it ...

Rapid prototyping of microfluidic systems in poly(dimethylsiloxane)

Soft lithography is an alternative to silicon-based micromachining that uses replica molding of nontraditional elastomeric materials to fabricate stamps and microfluidic channels. We describe here an extension to the soft lithography paradigm, multilayer soft lithography, with which devices consisting of multiple layers may be fabricated from soft materials. We used this technique to build active microfluidic systems containing on-off valves, switching valves, and pumps entirely out of elastomer. The softness of these materials allows the device areas to be reduced by more than two orders of magnitude compared with silicon-based devices. The other advantages of soft lithography, such as rapid prototyping, ease of fabrication, and biocompatibility, are retained.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/288/5463/113.full.pdf

Monolithic microfabricated valves and pumps by multilayer soft lithography

Microfluidic devices are finding increasing application as analytical systems, biomedical devices, tools for chemistry and biochemistry, and systems for fundamental research. Conventional methods of fabricating microfluidic devices have centered on etching in glass and silicon. Fabrication of microfluidic devices in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) by soft lithography provides faster, less expensive routes than these conventional methods to devices that handle aqueous solutions. These soft-lithographic methods are based on rapid prototyping and replica molding and are more accessible to chemists and biologists working under benchtop conditions than are the microelectronics-derived methods because, in soft lithography, devices do not need to be fabricated in a cleanroom. This paper describes devices fabricated in PDMS for separations, patterning of biological and nonbiological material, and components for integrated systems.

Fabrication of microfluidic systems in poly(dimethylsiloxane)

▪ Abstract Soft lithography, a set of techniques for microfabrication, is based on printing and molding using elastomeric stamps with the patterns of interest in bas-relief. As a technique for fabricating microstructures for biological applications, soft lithography overcomes many of the shortcomings of photolithography. In particular, soft lithography offers the ability to control the molecular structure of surfaces and to pattern the complex molecules relevant to biology, to fabricate channel structures appropriate for microfluidics, and to pattern and manipulate cells. For the relatively large feature sizes used in biology (≥50 μm), production of prototype patterns and structures is convenient, inexpensive, and rapid. Self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiolates on gold are particularly easy to pattern by soft lithography, and they provide exquisite control over surface biochemistry.

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Soft Lithography in Biology and Biochemistry

Planar chips technology for miniaturization and integration of separation techniques into monitoring systems. Capillary electrophoresis on a chip

A micromachined chemical analysis device based on capillary electrophoresis has been successfully used for very fast size separation of a synthetic mixture of fluorescent phosphorothioate oligonucleotides ranging from 10 to 25 bases in length. The device consists of a channel system which has been formed in the surface of a glass plate by a standard photolithographical process. An integrated volume-defined sample injector allowed for unbiased electrokinetic introduction of sample plugs of 150-μm length (corresponding sample volume, 90 pL) into the separation channel. This well-defined injection procedure, in combination with the application of high electric fields of up to 2300 V/cm, resulted in size separation of single-stranded oligonucleotides in less than 45 s when a separation distance of 3.8 cm was used

High-Speed Separation of Antisense Oligonucleotides on a Micromachined Capillary Electrophoresis Device

Influence of borate complexation on the electrophoretic behavior of carbohydrates in capillary electrophoresis

Integrated capillary electrophoresis (ICE) is emerging as a new analytical tool allowing fast, automated, miniaturized and multiplexed assays, thus meeting the needs of the pharmaceutical industry in drug development. The current state-of-the-art of ICE is described with an emphasis on the choice of the support material (glass or polymeric materials), electrokinetic fluid handling, and injection and detection issues. Strategies and chip designs for pre- or post-column derivatization, DNA sequencing, on-line PCR analysis, on-chip enzymatic sample digestion, fraction isolation, and immunoassays are presented. The review concludes with a brief outlook.

Aran Paulus

Papers

Planar chips technology for miniaturization and integration of separation techniques into monitoring systems. Capillary electrophoresis on a chip

High-Speed Separation of Antisense Oligonucleotides on a Micromachined Capillary Electrophoresis Device

Influence of borate complexation on the electrophoretic behavior of carbohydrates in capillary electrophoresis

Integrated chip‐based capillary electrophoresis

Detection of carbohydrates in capillary electrophoresis.