Polymer-MEMS technology for biomedicine and communication

微制造技术始于20世纪50年代初的一项制造微电子电路的研究，如今，S开创了跨学科研究和开发的新范式。这一点从弥漫在人类社会中的众多电子设备中可见一斑，从便携式个人音乐系统到植入式健康辅助设备，如起搏器和除颤器。尽管集成电子学取得了巨大的发展，但分析领域，特别是临床科学领域，仍然属于笨重的仪器和中央实验室。MEMS技术及其分支，如微流控技术，正在将实验室缩小到单一芯片，通常被称为芯片上实验室(LOC)技术。目前，LOC主要使用玻璃基板，这使得技术昂贵，并且不容易与电子集成兼容。随着可光图案化聚合物的广泛应用，出现了一个新的MEMS领域，即聚合物-MEMS技术。聚合物-MEMS技术提供了新材料的独特组合，以及将MEMS传感器、执行器、光学元件、微流控原件和薄膜电子元件结合在一起的潜力。聚合物还具有出色的生物兼容性，使其成为微型临床诊断系统的理想选择。

Microfabrication technology, started as an investigation into creating miniature electronic circuits in early 1950's has now created a new paradigm in interdisciplinary research and development. This is quite evident from the numerous electronic gadgets that pervade human society, ranging from portable personal music systems to implantable health aids such as pacemakers and defibrillators. Despite tremendous growth in integrated electronics, the realm of analysis, particularly in the area of clinical sciences, still belongs to bulky instruments and centralized laboratories. MEMS technology and its offshoots, such as microfluidics, are shrinking the laboratory onto a single chip, popularly termed Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology. Currently, LOC primarily uses glass substrates, which makes the technologies expensive and not readily compatible with electronic integration. With the increased availability of photo-patternable polymers, a new area of MEMS has emerged, namely the polymer-MEMS technology. Polymer-MEMS technology offers a unique blend of new materials as well as the potential to combine MEMS sensors, actuators, optical components, microfluidic primitives and thin-film electronic components. Polymers also offer excellent biocompatibility, making polymers an ideal choice for miniature clinical diagnostic systems.