| Since the 1950's, the microelectronics industry has seen a remarkable evolution from the centimeter-scale devices created by Jack Kilby to millimeter-scale integrated circuits fabricated by Robert Noyce to today's 8nm feature size MOS transistors. During this time, not only have exponential improvements been made in the size of the devices, but the CAD and workstation technologies have advanced at a similar pace enabling the design of truly complex systems on a chip. The microfabrication and micro-engineering advances that have made all this possible have depended upon the ability to produce integrated electronic components through rapid, low-cost techniques that yield highly accurate and reproducible structures. Adaptation of these silicon-based technologies together with advances in new bio-material have led to incredible advances in microfluidics through soft lithography of PDMS. These microfluidic devices have demonstrated order of magnitude improvements in reaction efficiency and are changing the standards for life science research techniques. Yet, to truly advance micro-technology for the life sciences, we must move beyond passive structures to devices that additionally possess active functions: autonomous closed-loop sensing, control and actuation. Such devices have the potential to change the state of the art not only in research settings but also medical diagnosis and disease treatment in point of care and field settings.; In this work, I have explored systems that do just that. The most promising advances in microfluidics for the life sciences have been in the hybrid integration of traditional microelectronics and passive microfluidics. Through the example of a hybrid microsystem for stand-alone cell culture and incubation, I explore the entire architectural space for design of hybrid systems. I investigate the trade-offs in scaling, design, fabrication, packaging and testing of these systems, using empirical, analytical and finite element analysis techniques, while; taking very careful consideration of the usability and environmental impact of such devices. The approach to integration demonstrates a new paradigm for the engineering of heterogeneous, structurally complex three dimensional microsystems for the life sciences. |
