Micromachines 

About: Micromachines is an academic journal published by Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Medicine & Materials science. It has an ISSN identifier of 2072-666X. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 8620 publications have been published receiving 74170 citations.

Micromachined Thermal Flow Sensors—A Review

Abstract: Microfabrication has greatly matured and proliferated in use amongst many disciplines. There has been great interest in micromachined flow sensors due to the benefits of miniaturization: low cost, small device footprint, low power consumption, greater sensitivity, integration with on-chip circuitry, etc. This paper reviews the theory of thermal flow sensing and the different configurations and operation modes available. Material properties relevant to micromachined thermal flow sensing and selection criteria are also presented. Finally, recent applications of micromachined thermal flow sensors are presented. Detailed tables of the reviewed devices are included.

A Review on Micromixers

Abstract: Microfluidic devices have attracted increasing attention in the fields of biomedical diagnostics, food safety control, environmental protection, and animal epidemic prevention. Micromixing has a considerable impact on the efficiency and sensitivity of microfluidic devices. This work reviews recent advances on the passive and active micromixers for the development of various microfluidic chips. Recently reported active micromixers driven by pressure fields, electrical fields, sound fields, magnetic fields, and thermal fields, etc. and passive micromixers, which owned two-dimensional obstacles, unbalanced collisions, spiral and convergence-divergence structures or three-dimensional lamination and spiral structures, were summarized and discussed. The future trends for micromixers to combine with 3D printing and paper channel were brought forth as well.

Fabrication of Micro/Nano Structures on Metals by Femtosecond Laser Micromachining

Abstract: Femtosecond laser micromachining has emerged in recent years as a new technique for micro/nano structure fabrication because of its applicability to virtually all kinds of materials in an easy one-step process that is scalable. In the past, much research on femtosecond laser micromachining was carried out to understand the complex ablation mechanism, whereas recent works are mostly concerned with the fabrication of surface structures because of their numerous possible applications. The state-of-the-art knowledge on the fabrication of these structures on metals with direct femtosecond laser micromachining is reviewed in this article. The effect of various parameters, such as fluence, number of pulses, laser beam polarization, wavelength, incident angle, scan velocity, number of scans, and environment, on the formation of different structures is discussed in detail wherever possible. Furthermore, a guideline for surface structures optimization is provided. The authors’ experimental work on laser-inscribed regular pattern fabrication is presented to give a complete picture of micromachining processes. Finally, possible applications of laser-machined surface structures in different fields are briefly reviewed.

Microvalves and Micropumps for BioMEMS

Abstract: This review presents an extensive overview of a large number of microvalve and micropump designs with great variability in performance and operation. The performance of a given design varies greatly depending on the particular assembly procedure and there is no standardized performance test against which all microvalves and micropumps can be compared. We present the designs with a historical perspective and provide insight into their advantages and limitations for biomedical uses.

A Review on Macroscale and Microscale Cell Lysis Methods

Abstract: The lysis of cells in order to extract the nucleic acids or proteins inside it is a crucial unit operation in biomolecular analysis. This paper presents a critical evaluation of the various methods that are available both in the macro and micro scale for cell lysis. Various types of cells, the structure of their membranes are discussed initially. Then, various methods that are currently used to lyse cells in the macroscale are discussed and compared. Subsequently, popular methods for micro scale cell lysis and different microfluidic devices used are detailed with their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, a comparison of different techniques used in microfluidics platform has been presented which will be helpful to select method for a particular application.