1. Microfluidics: introduction to physical quantities and chip manufacturing

The human eye can only see objects measuring 0.05 mm at a distance of 20 to 25 cm. Our attraction to the world of micrometric objects led to the invention of the magnifying glass in 1250 by the English scientist Roger Bacon, before the optical microscope appeared around the 17th century and gradually evolved. In the 1930s, German researchers developed the electron microscope, enabling objects to be observed at higher magnification than with optical microscopy. The transmission electron microscope allows magnification up to 50 million times. When it comes to observing objects, man has largely surpassed the micrometer scale.

In 1990, Manz et al. developed a silicone chip with a miniaturized high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system (5 x 5 mm chip and 6 µm x 2 µm x 15 cm column). From this date onwards, new micrometer-scale devices capable of performing...