Optical Biochips - Biophotonics - page 231

same chip [26]. Once the diffusion barrier and sealing problem is solved, it
will even become possible to produce these complete photonic microsystems
on flexible substrates with a lifetime of many years.
12.9 Conclusions and Summary
Optical biochips of various integration levels have become important tools
in many different areas of the life sciences: Genomics, proteomics, medical
diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug screening, contamination detection in the
food industry, environmental and pollution monitoring, as well as counter-
terrorism all make substantial use of this technology, due to its simplicity,
reliability, sensitivity, and low cost. Increasing levels of integration will soon
lead to complete, disposable labs-on-a-chip with even higher functionality and
performance. The availability of organic semiconductors makes it possible to
fabricate complete monolithic photonic microsystems on a single substrate,
for example, on an injection-molded piece of polymer containing the entire
microfluidics part of a lab-on-a-chip. This will open up many more appli-
cation areas to optical biochips, and it will make them highly versatile and
indispensable tools of our everyday lives.
Acknowledgments
This contribution could not have been prepared without the invaluable help
of M. Wiki and R.E. Kunz, both at CSEM SA, whose generous support I
gratefully acknowledge.
References
1. R.E. Kunz, in Integrated Optical Circuits and Components , ed. by E.J. Murphy
(Marcel Dekker, New York, 1999), p. 335
2. P.V. Lambeck, Meas. Sci. Technol. 17 , 93 (2006)
3. J. Tschmelak et al., Talanta, 65 , 313 (2005)
4. P.N. Prasad, Introduction to Biophotonics (Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2003)
5. Affymetrix Inc., 3380 Central Expressway, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA,
http://www.affymetrix.com
6. M. Schena (ed.), Microarray Biochip Technology (Eaton Publishing, Natick,
MA, 2000)
7. E. Oosterbroek, A. van den Berg (eds.), Lab-on-a-Chip (Elsevier, Amsterdam,
Netherlands, 2003)
8. A. Manz, N. Graber, H.M. Widmer, Sens. Actuators B 1 , 244 (1990)
9. E.J. Cho, F.V. Bright, Anal. Chem. 73 , 3289 (2001)
10. A.C.R. Grayson et al., Proc. IEEE 92 , 6 (2004)
11. R. Bahir, Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 56 , 1565 (2004)