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M. Kiran Raj and S. Chakraborty
3 State of the Art—Biomicrofluidics
Modern technology has embraced miniaturization in the last century as indicated by
the proposition from Richard Feynman: “There’s plenty of room at the bottom” during
his lecture at Caltech in 1959. Like any other field of science and engineering, fluid
mechanics too pushed its limits to explore the potential at the micro- and nanoscales
and resulted in the inception of microfluidics and nanofluidics. With the advancements in characterization and probing techniques at small scales, it is now possible
to manipulate the materials at nano level or even less. Following sections deal with
the important developments in the area microengineering at small scales, pertinent
to the study of biofluid mechanics.
3.1 Microfluidics and Lab-on-Chip Technology
In the past few decades, microfluidics has emerged as an extensive and multidisciplinary area of research. The rise in technological advancements, especially in the
field of electronics and instrumentation overlapped interests with many other fields
including the biomedical sciences. This resulted in the inception of biomedical engineering to cater the needs of physicians using engineering techniques including diagnosis, vital monitoring, support systems, and therapeutic devices. The contribution
of biofluid dynamics to biomedical engineering is noteworthy as many critical appliances like blood pumps and dialyzing units work on the principles of fluid dynamics.
Microfluidics came handy in the development of diagnostics devices and methods
with huge advantages during sensing, sample requirement, time of detection, and
the affordability to the masses. Figure 5 indicates the salient aspects of microfluidics
that are directly related to biomedical engineering, manifesting its cross-disciplinary
nature.
3.2 Microfabrication—Emergence of Lithographic
Techniques
Microchannel fabrication is one of the most important aspectsof microfluidics. The
capability of fabricating very small channels limited the studies until a few decades
back. Though conventional machining methods like milling have been employed
to create channels of a few hundred micron size, soft lithography has emerged as
the most popular choice to fabricate channels up to nanometer dimensions. It is
called ‘soft’ because of the elastomeric materials used in the fabrication process.
The soft lithography follows a molding technique similar to that found in a foundry
M. Kiran Raj and S. Chakraborty
3 State of the Art—Biomicrofluidics
Modern technology has embraced miniaturization in the last century as indicated by
the proposition from Richard Feynman: “There’s plenty of room at the bottom” during
his lecture at Caltech in 1959. Like any other field of science and engineering, fluid
mechanics too pushed its limits to explore the potential at the micro- and nanoscales
and resulted in the inception of microfluidics and nanofluidics. With the advancements in characterization and probing techniques at small scales, it is now possible
to manipulate the materials at nano level or even less. Following sections deal with
the important developments in the area microengineering at small scales, pertinent
to the study of biofluid mechanics.
3.1 Microfluidics and Lab-on-Chip Technology
In the past few decades, microfluidics has emerged as an extensive and multidisciplinary area of research. The rise in technological advancements, especially in the
field of electronics and instrumentation overlapped interests with many other fields
including the biomedical sciences. This resulted in the inception of biomedical engineering to cater the needs of physicians using engineering techniques including diagnosis, vital monitoring, support systems, and therapeutic devices. The contribution
of biofluid dynamics to biomedical engineering is noteworthy as many critical appliances like blood pumps and dialyzing units work on the principles of fluid dynamics.
Microfluidics came handy in the development of diagnostics devices and methods
with huge advantages during sensing, sample requirement, time of detection, and
the affordability to the masses. Figure 5 indicates the salient aspects of microfluidics
that are directly related to biomedical engineering, manifesting its cross-disciplinary
nature.
3.2 Microfabrication—Emergence of Lithographic
Techniques
Microchannel fabrication is one of the most important aspectsof microfluidics. The
capability of fabricating very small channels limited the studies until a few decades
back. Though conventional machining methods like milling have been employed
to create channels of a few hundred micron size, soft lithography has emerged as
the most popular choice to fabricate channels up to nanometer dimensions. It is
called ‘soft’ because of the elastomeric materials used in the fabrication process.
The soft lithography follows a molding technique similar to that found in a foundry