After earlier meetings in Enschede (NL, 1994), Basel (CH, 1996) and Banff (CDN, 1998), muTAS 2000 is the fourth international symposium on the subject of miniaturized techniques, methods, devices and systems for (bio)chemical analysis and synthesis. Initially started as a minor sub-topic in the large field of Micro System Technology (MST or MEMS), the field of muTAS is currently generally considered as one of the most important application areas of MST, which is reflected in the still rapidly growing research, development, and, above all, commercialization activities. Apart from further...

In the rapidly developing information society there is an ever-growing demand for information-supplying elements or sensors. The technology to fabricate such sensors has grown in the past few decades from a skilful activity to a mature area of scientific research and technological development. In this process, the use of silicon-based techniques has appeared to be of crucial importance, as it introduced standardized (mass) fabrication techniques, created the possibility of integrated electronics, allowed for new transduction principles, and enabled the realization of micromechanical...

In the past ten years there has been a rapid growth of the research and application area known as Lab-on-a-Chip. After an initial focus on electrokinetic separation techniques on chip, the scope of the field has widened to include topics like microfluidics, DNA analysis, cell analysis, microreactors and mass spectrometer interfacing. As well as the analytical chemistry community, synthetic chemists, chemical engineers, biochemists and biomedical engineers are now also becoming more and more interested in using new micro- and nanotechnological techniques.

This first Lab-on-a-Chip...