Microfabrication of biomedical lab-on-chip devices. A review

Abstract

Lab-on-chip systems are a class of miniaturized analytical devices that integrate fluidics, electronics and various sensorics. They are capable of analysing biochemical liquid samples, like solutions of metabolites, macromolecules, proteins, nucleic acids, or cells and viruses. Supple- mentary to their measuring capabilities, the lab-on-chip devices facilitate fluidic transportation, sorting, mixing, or separation of liquid samples. A type of lab-on-chip devices, named biochip, is devoted specifically to genomic, proteomic and pharmaceutical tests. The significance of such miniaturized devices lies in their potentiality of automating laboratory procedures, which highly reduces the time of biomedical tests and laboratory work. This review summarizes numerous fabrication methods and procedures for producing lab-on-chip devices and also envisages future evolution.