Basics of microfluidics technology

Microfluidics has undoubtedly emerged as the most influential technology that has revolutionized the biological and chemical studies by mimicking the miniature chip-scale device technology. Microfluidics approaches have outperformed traditional chemical and biomedical methods and have provided a great platform to develop devices with much potential. Now, the most rapidly growing research area of microfluidics is the organ on a chip. The microfabrication of techniques will further allow to design various tailor-made devices by researchers from different research fields. Initially, microfluidic devices were fabricated by using glass and silicon and with time, the use of polymeric materials in fabrication process has grown well exponentially. The microfluidic approaches have been fabricated by using various approaches like wet etching, hot embossing, laser ablation, and photo and soft lithography. In microfluidic channels, different active and passive components interact with fluids both inside and outside. The rapid development in the microfluidic techniques suggests a means to integrate their use into synthetic biomaterials, but selection of appropriate fabrication material remains a major concern. Microfluidics has found its use in various biomedical technologies like tissue engineering, wound healing, diagnostic devices, prosthetics, drug delivery vehicles, and scaffolds. The field of microfluidics offers several advantages along with drawbacks with still many issues that are encountered in the fabrication process that needs to be addressed. Due to unique physical and chemical properties of fabricated materials, microfluidic field has evolved greatly and has made a significant contribution in research studies.