Micro-Drops and Digital Microfluidics

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Digital Microfluidics in Today’s Microfluidics

1.1 The Development of Microfluidics

The development of microfluidics has been remarkable since the 1980s. Historically, in the 1980s, the first applications of microfluidics were triggered by the generalization of ink jet printing, and also to some extent by space applications, where droplets are used to feed micro-motors. Today, the developments are boosted by biotechnology. Indeed, microfluidics is the basis of most biotechnological developments, simply because biological samples are in a liquid state and biological organisms live in an aqueous environment. Compared to conventional techniques, the use of microfluidic devices has many advantages [1]: the volumes of sample and reagents are significantly ...