6. Conclusion

The origins of microfluidics in the 90s were marked by very ambitious expectations, given the vast number of possibilities that were opening up. However, in the first decade of microfluidics, the high cost of devices severely limited its development and restricted research to device fabrication and the study of materials in particular. The exponential expansion of research really began after G. Whitesides introduced the use of PDMS and soft lithography. Researchers from a variety of fields flocked to the use of microfluidics, reviving "many mature and saturated disciplines with unprecedented creativity and innovative problems to study and solve".