Lab on Chips and Optical Detection Methods

Dear Colleagues,

Lab-on-a-chip devices have been a subject of increasing interest for more than 40 years. These devices are tools that represent an improvement in many fields, including medicine, biology, and chemistry.

Lab-on-a-chip devices may require different parts to perform measurements, such as, microfluidic circuits; actuation systems for moving and heating liquid samples or integrating biological samples at low temperatures; power supplies; microcontrollers; and sensors. The sensors, particularly, are a mandatory part of the detection system. Many different types of sensors have been used for lab-on-a-chip devices, including electrochemical, nanomechanical, magnetoresistive, and optical sensors.

The sensors can be integrated into microfluidic platforms or used externally, in an electronic reader. The ease of their integration depends on the materials of the microfluidic circuit. In this regard, sensors have been integrated into microfluidic platforms made of many different materials, such as those made of silicon, glass, thermoplastics, PDMS, and printed circuit boards (PCBs), to name a few.

Optical sensors are an interesting option in this area due to their small size, reliability, and high sensitivity. Many of them have been integrated into lab-on-a-chip devices; these include, for example, absorbance, surface plasmon resonance, fluorescence, and chemiluminescence sensors. Therefore, the combination of a lab-on-a-chip with an optical sensor has enormous potential for point-of-care testing devices.

In addition to the integration and use of optical sensors, the use of optical actuation has provided many interesting techniques for use in sensing systems, such as optoelectrowetting on dielectric (OEWOD) or optical devices based on the use of fiber optics or waveguides. All these optical components, i.e., sensors and actuators, together with or integrated into lab-on-a-chip devices, has led to a lot of interesting research, with much more work still to be carried out.

As such, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers and short communications that focus on lab-on-a-chip platforms with integrated optical sensors and/or actuators for detection purposes. Topics related to lab-on-a-chip and optical systems that will be accepted include, but are not limited to:

• The integration of optical sensors into lab-on-a-chip devices for biomedical/biochemical detection methods, or the use of sensors as part of an electronic reader for lab-on-a-chip devices;
• The integration or use of optical actuators for biomedical/biochemical detection methods;
• The mass-production processes of lab-on-a-chip devices with integrated optical sensors and/or actuators;
• Optical systems created for examining both cell and organotypic cultures in lab-on-a-chip devices, especially retina cultures.

Papers reporting on optical integrated sensors and actuators on biomedical lab-on-a-PCB platforms are especially welcomed.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Prof. Dr. Francisco Perdigones
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• lab-on-a-chip
• optical sensors
• optical actuators
• absorbance
• fluorescence
• surface plasmon resonance
• waveguides
• optic fiber
• biomedical application
• chemical application
• cell cultures
• organotypic cultures