Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices are integrated semiconductor devices. They are used for the testing and analysis of very small amounts of samples. These samples could be clinical, chemical or biological.  LOC device integrates elements in fluid form, sensor components and detection components that can perform whole chemical reaction or analysis. For a researcher, this method helps in synthesis, chemical reactions, separation, detection and fine analysis. First successful LOC analysis system was gas chromatograph. Later various devices were fabricated in this field. Some important devices are micropumps and flowsensors. LOC device serves as a nanolab where a network of channels is employed for storing, mixing and testing of chemical compounds. Since LOC devices are based on microfluidics devices technology, they are also known as microfluidics. They are in fact scaled down version of micro electromechanical systems. For fabrication process of LOC devices, photolithography method is employed. LOC devices take very less time for the analysis and hence they are widely used in biochemical assays, immunoassay, single cell analysis and extraction of DNA.