Chapter 1
Introduction
Microfluidics deals with the manipulation of small amounts of fluids [126], which
are in the order of few micro- to pico-liters. By this, microfluidics allows for
the miniaturization, integration, automation, and parallelization of laboratory procedures, e.g., in (bio-)chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and food industries. In
these domains, many experiments have been conducted manually thus far—using,
e.g., fully fledged laboratories, test tubes, or pipettes. This does not only require
a significant amount of personnel, but also expensive equipment and instruments.
In contrast, microfluidic devices allow to realize those experiments including
operations such as mixing, heating, and incubation on a single device—yielding
the so-called Lab-on-a-Chips (LoCs).
The development of corresponding devices mainly follows the path which has
been seen before in the domain of microelectronics: Here, since the latter half of the
twentieth century, accomplishments in technology as well as fabrication allowed
to shrink electrical devices from room to pocket sizes and to double the transistor
density on chips every 18 months (which is known as Moore’s Law [91]). This
technological progress led to a penetration of corresponding devices into almost
every aspect of our daily life.
In microfluidics, similar accomplishments are predicted: Their initial developments started in the 1990s [55] and are also expected to revolutionize our lives
by shrinking whole laboratories on single, portable microfluidic devices which are
only a few square centimeters in size. The success of microfluidics is based on the
following unique characteristics:
• In the microscale, a significantly lower sample and reagent consumption is
required, which substantially reduces the costs.
• The high surface-to-volume ratios allow for a fast heat and mass transfer, which
potentially allows for faster analyses.
• The miniaturization, integration, and automation support high throughput as well
as parallelization. Furthermore, automation also reduces the need for manual
labor.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Grimmer, R. Wille, Designing Droplet Microfluidic Networks,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20713-7_1
3
Introduction
Microfluidics deals with the manipulation of small amounts of fluids [126], which
are in the order of few micro- to pico-liters. By this, microfluidics allows for
the miniaturization, integration, automation, and parallelization of laboratory procedures, e.g., in (bio-)chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and food industries. In
these domains, many experiments have been conducted manually thus far—using,
e.g., fully fledged laboratories, test tubes, or pipettes. This does not only require
a significant amount of personnel, but also expensive equipment and instruments.
In contrast, microfluidic devices allow to realize those experiments including
operations such as mixing, heating, and incubation on a single device—yielding
the so-called Lab-on-a-Chips (LoCs).
The development of corresponding devices mainly follows the path which has
been seen before in the domain of microelectronics: Here, since the latter half of the
twentieth century, accomplishments in technology as well as fabrication allowed
to shrink electrical devices from room to pocket sizes and to double the transistor
density on chips every 18 months (which is known as Moore’s Law [91]). This
technological progress led to a penetration of corresponding devices into almost
every aspect of our daily life.
In microfluidics, similar accomplishments are predicted: Their initial developments started in the 1990s [55] and are also expected to revolutionize our lives
by shrinking whole laboratories on single, portable microfluidic devices which are
only a few square centimeters in size. The success of microfluidics is based on the
following unique characteristics:
• In the microscale, a significantly lower sample and reagent consumption is
required, which substantially reduces the costs.
• The high surface-to-volume ratios allow for a fast heat and mass transfer, which
potentially allows for faster analyses.
• The miniaturization, integration, and automation support high throughput as well
as parallelization. Furthermore, automation also reduces the need for manual
labor.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Grimmer, R. Wille, Designing Droplet Microfluidic Networks,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20713-7_1
3