title: Fluidic microchemomechanical integrated circuits processing chemical information.
abstract: Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology has blossomed into a major new technology fundamentally influencing the sciences of life and nature. From a systemic point of view however, microfluidics is still in its infancy. Here, we present the concept of a microfluidic central processing unit (CPU) which shows remarkable similarities to early electronic Von Neumann microprocessors. It combines both control and execution units and, moreover, the complete power supply on a single chip and introduces the decision-making ability regarding chemical information into fluidic integrated circuits (ICs). As a consequence of this system concept, the ICs process chemical information completely in a self-controlled manner and energetically self-sustaining. The ICs are fabricated by layer-by-layer deposition of several overlapping layers based on different intrinsically active polymers. As examples we present two microchips carrying out long-term monitoring of critical parameters by around-the-clock sampling.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems, Chair of Polymeric Microsystems (Heisenberg Chair), Technische Universität Dresden and Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Rinaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Greiner
authors.forename: Merle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Allerdissen
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Voigt
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Richter
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers; D007700:Kinetics; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers