Microfluidic System Interfacing

The field related to the development of microfluidic systems performing bio-chemical analysis is continuously growing. Careful packaging of microsystems is vital to ensure efficient work of the device, especially at the interface between the system and the environment, where fluidic, electrical and optical interconnections must be provided. The book investigates new packaging solutions to interface the microfluidic systems with the outer world. It also shows how to fabricate and test a fluidic motherboard for microfluidic devices. The book can be divided in three parts: ¿ Specifying the definition of packaging: what characterizes it, the weak points and difficulties and all the parameters involved and important to fulfill a successful protection and interface of a system. ¿ Developing models regarding the critical parameters in packaging to ease the design and dimensioning of fluidic and optical interconnections. ¿ Design, fabricate and testing a microfluidic motherboard that integrates polymer-based waveguides, external optical connector plugs and fluidic networks providing an interface between microfluidic systems and the outer world.