Hybrid microfluidic systems: combining a polymer microfluidic toolbox with biosensors

In this paper we present polymer based microfluidic chips which contain functional elements (electrodes, biosensors) made out of a different material (metals, silicon, organic semiconductors). These hybrid microfluidic devices allow the integration of additional functionality other than the simple manipulation of liquids in the chip and have been developed as a reaction to the increasing requirement for functional integration in microfluidics.