The Development of Chip-based Analytical Devices

The hrst pTAS devices were based on GC. Soon after, HPLC-based pTAS platforms began to appear and then CE followed. In chip CE, an injection was performed and an electrophoretic separation of a sample mixture (different fluorescent dyes) and all liquid handling was achieved using electro-osmotic flow. Since then, electrophoresis and electrokinetic fluid handling have been the cornerstones of many miniaturised analytical devices. 

The term pTAS is sometimes interchanged with lab-on-a-chip (LOG), more often when the manipulation of fluids is involved. pTAS and LOG range in size from a few microns to a few millimetres. The technique of pTAS is interdisciplinary it combines the advantages of chemical sensors and the resolving power of modem benchtop analytical systems and is constantly evolving. The main advantage of pTAS is integration of the entire separation process onto one analytical microdevice, so early efforts focused on micropumps and valves to manipulate fluids inside a microfabricated structure. In such a fluid-based pTAS, 

Analytical Instrumentation A Guide to Laboratory, Portable and Miniaturized Instruments G. McMahon 

Many analytical assays that used to be very labour intensive have been reduced in size and work off a small chip. Examples include polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA analysis and sequencing protein separations and cell manipulations  

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