The behavior of fluids at the microscale can differ from 'macrofluidic' behavior in that factors such as Surface Tension , energy dissipation, and fluidic resistance start to dominate the system. Microfluidics studies how these behaviors change, and how they can be worked around, or exploited for new uses.
At these scales (channel diameters of around 10 to several hundered micrometers) some interesting and unintuitive properties appear. The Reynolds Number , which characterises the presence of turbulent flow, is extremely low, therefore the flow will remain laminar (two fluids joining for example will not mix because of this, the Diffusion alone will cause the two compounds to mingle).
It is a new science, having emerged only in the 1990s , so the number of applications for this technology is currently small. However, it is potentially significant in a wide range of technologies. Microfluidics is used in the development of DNA Microarray technology, micro-thermal and micro-propulsion technologies, and Lab-on-a-chip technology.
Another growing field similar to microfluidics is Digital Microfluidics . Instead of considering a continuous flow of liquid as in the present case, Digital Microfluidics studies the displacement, formation, division, fusion of micrometer-scale droplets of liquid.
- Micro/Nano Research Lab at Monash University, Australia
- David Erickson Microfluidics Research Group at Cornell University
- B. J. Kirby Microfluidics Research Group at Cornell University
- Bios: The Lab-on-a-Chip Group at the University of Twente, Netherlands
- Charles Yang's Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Stanford Microfluidics Lab
- N. T. Nguyen's Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- IMTEK Lab for Microfluidics
- HSG-IMIT
- Klavs F. Jensen's Lab at MIT
- Dongqing Li's Lab University of Toronto/Vanderbilt University
- Microsystem Technology Lab , at The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
- UCSB Microfluidics Lab
- Purdue Microfluidics Lab
- Experimental Soft Condensed Matter Group , at Harvard University, Boston
- George Whitesides's Lab , at Harvard University, Boston
- Shuichi Takayama's Lab , at the University of Michigan
- Axel Scherer's Lab at the California Institute of Technology
- [http://ismagilovlab.uchicago.edu/ Rustem Ismagilov's Lab], at the University of Chicago
- [http://nljgroup.eng.uci.edu/ Noo Li Jeon's Lab] at UCI
- [http://biopoems.berkeley.edu/ Bio-POEMS], at Berkeley
- Stephen Quake's Lab at Stanford University
- Albert Folch's Lab at the University of Washington
- David Beebe's Lab , at the University of Wisconsin
- Sandia National Labs Microfluidics Department
- Paul Yager's Lab at the University of Washington
- T. Kitamori's Lab at The University of Tokyo, Japan
- Jerry Westerweel's lab at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Sabeth Verpoorte's lab at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands
- David Sinton's Lab at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada
- Microfluidic MEMS and Nanostructures Lab at ESCPI , Paris, France
- Micronit Microfluidics - Glass microfluidics for lab-on-a-chip applications
- www.microfluidicscorp.com
- Gyros AB
- [http://www.sensirion.com/liquidflow Sensirion Inc.], Microfluidic MEMS flow Sensors based on CMOSens technology
- Micralyne , MEMS foundry
- Fluidigm Corp.
- Micronics, Inc.
- Nanostream, Inc.
- Caliper Life Sciences
- Cascade Microtech , Microfluidics Metrology Systems
- Cellix Ltd. - Microfluidic biochips, instrumentation and analysis software for cell based assays
- Protea Biosciences Inc. , Microfluidic Products geared towards Biological Applications
- Edge Embossing LLC , Plastic microfluidics design and manufacturing through soft embossing
- MiniFAB - Design, fabrication and integration of polymer microengineered systems
- MicroPlumbers Microsciences LLC , Multiphysics simulations for R & D of microfluidics devices
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