March 2007

Stéphane Renard

Miniaturization of macro lab functions is restricted by several factors. In addition to the fundamental laws of Microfluidics, especially micro-capillary forces, there is also the need for inlet and outlet tubing to connect to the external world, and the need for human handling of the components. Moreover, while silicon is extremely cost-competitive for small chips, it is expensive for large dies. As a result, polymer and glass are often preferred in pharmaceutical lab automation and diagnostics systems, because they are more cost effective for large disposable plates and arrays of channels.

When Silicon Is Required

Nevertheless, silicon has some unique differentiating features for certain applications. In fact, it is becoming compulsory when at least one of the following aspects is desired for the product:

• Excellent electrical, mechanical or thermal properties (e.g. cantilever-based resonant bio-detectors or impedance detection)
• Tight dimensional control at micron or sub-micron scale (e.g. patch clamping or manipulation of cells)
• Repeatable and controllable handling of liquids or droplets (e.g. fluid actuation or nebulisation)
• Use of silicon or silica for a biological function (e.g. micro-chromatography columns)

Strong Growth for Tronics

Because of these opportunities, Tronics is experiencing strong growth in the pharmaceutical lab automation sector. We are now active in product development projects through international contractual partnerships with key research facilities and world leaders in their fields:

• Industrialization of Caltech BioNEMS nano-resonators
• Industrialization of microfluidics actuators in partnership with Fraunhofer
• Development of a cell analysis chip with Evotec Technologies (now PerkinElmer), Sanofi-Synthelabo and CEA-LETI

In addition, we are building a silicon/glass technology platform for microfluidics and biological product development in association with SINTEF, HSG-IMIT, Infineon-SensoNor, thinXXS and other partners (www.microbuilder.org).

Tronics is leveraging our participation in each of these projects to develop new competencies and to establish ourselves as a leading manufacturer of custom components for specific pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis systems.