STANDARDIZED APPROACHES TO FACILITATE THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION OF MICROFLUIDIC PRODUCTS

Description:
As technologies mature, they are incorporated into one or several product applications. Likewise, as product markets mature, various smaller segments arise, and suppliers differentiate themselves from one another by offering different and/or better consumables and other products. The development of standards serves the purposes of consumer convenience and/or user/bystander safety, and can be driven by industry and supported by governments. For example, oscilloscopes and power supplies use BNC and banana plug connectors, and manual and robotic lab instrumentation designed for small-volume chemical and biomedical sample preparation adopt the 9-mm spacing standards for 96-well microtiter plates (or equivalents for 384- and 1536-well variants).

Objectives:
The purpose of this workshop is to look at the evolution of the use of standardized approaches in microfluidics products, product development, and research. The development and widespread use of standards in microfluidic devices is an important stage for the world of microfluidic products, as it may facilitate widespread acceptance by removing barriers such as incompatible connectors, inconsistent technical terminology, and unquantified or uncharacterized figures of merit.