There has been an enormous growth in the development of biotechnological applications, where advances in the techniques
of microelectronic fabrication and the technologies of miniaturization and integration in semiconductor industries are
being applied to the production of Laboratory-on-a-Chip devices. The aim of this development is to create devices that
will perform the same processes that are currently carried out in the laboratory in reduced timescales, at a lower cost,
requiring less reagents, and with a greater resolution of detection and specificity. The expectations of this Laboratory-on-a-Chip revolution is that this technology will facilitate rapid advances in gene discovery, genetic mapping and gene
expression with broader applications ranging from infectious diseases and cancer diagnostics to food quality and environmental
testing. A review of the current state of development in this field reveals the scale of the ongoing revolution
and serves to highlight the advances that can be perceived in the development of Laboratory-on-a-Chip technologies.
Since miniaturization can be applied to such a wide range of laboratory processes, some of the sub-units that can be used
as building blocks in these devices are described, with a brief description of some of the fabrication processes that can be
used to create them.