What is a microfluidic chip

Microfluidics integrates basic operating units such as sample preparation, reaction, separation and detection of biological, chemical and medical analysis processes into a micron scale chip to automatically complete the whole process of analysis.

Microfluidics integrates basic operating units such as sample preparation, reaction, separation and detection of biological, chemical and medical analysis processes into a micron scale chip to automatically complete the whole process of analysis. Because of its great potential in the fields of biology, chemistry, medicine and so on, it has developed into a new interdisciplinary research field of biology, chemistry, medicine, fluid, electronics, materials, machinery and other disciplines.

Initially intended as a complement to the nanotechnology revolution, microfluidic analysis chips have, after periods of hype and neglect, finally reached commercial production. Originally known as lab-on-a-chip in the United States and micrototal analytical systems in Europe, microfluid-based analytical chips have been developed with breakthroughs in materials science, micro and nanomachine technology and microelectronics. Microfluidic chips have also advanced rapidly, but nowhere near as fast as Moore's Law predicted for semiconductors. The bottleneck that hinders the development of microfluidic technology today is still the manufacturing and application problems that limited its development in the early days. There are problems with the chip interacting with anything remotely, let alone integrating full-featured sample preprocessing, testing, and microfluidic technologies in the same matrix. Compared with large-scale liquid chromatography, microfluidic technology is more difficult to design due to the micro-channels and the required components. Microfluidic technology also made great progress in the late 1980s and late 1990s, especially after the development of material science for studying chip substrates and fluid mobility technology for microchannels. In order to meet the needs of The Times, the current research focuses on the integration, especially the research of biosensors, the development and manufacture of multi-functional chips with super operation capability. Dr. Hsueh-Chia Chang of the University of Notre Dame, USA, has collaborated with microbiologists and immunoassay experts to improve the speed and sensitivity of microfluidic analytical devices to detect cells and biomolecules. At the same time, Chang improved on AC electroelectrics because he saw alternating current (AC) as the platform of choice to drive fluids through microfluidic analyzers used in medicine and research. The initial driving mechanism of the microfluidic analyzer is conventional DC electrokinetic, but the shortcomings of air bubbles and chemical reactions of substances in the electrode limit the application of DC. In addition, in order to ensure the accurate control of the flow, DC electrode must be placed in the liquid storage pool, can not be directly connected in the circuit.