A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single chip of only millimeters to a few square centimeters in size. Locs deal with the handling of extremely small fluid volumes down to less than pico liters. Lab-on-a-chip devices are a subset of MEMS devices and often indicated by "Micro Total Analysis Systems" (�tas) as well. Microfluidics is a broader term that describes also mechanical flow control devices like pumps and valves or sensors like flowmeters and viscometers. However, strictly regarded "Lab-on-a-Chip" indicates generally the scaling of single or multiple lab processes down to chip-format, whereas "�tas" is dedicated to the integration of the total sequence of lab processes to perform chemical analysis. The term "Lab-on-a-Chip" was introduced later on when it turned out that �tas technologies were more widely applicable than only for analysis purposes.

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Micro- or nanoscale device in which small numbers of molecules can

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Product that results from miniaturizing the process o a lab (such as fluid analysis) into the space of a microchip

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A small chip (often the size of a credit card) containing microfluidic channels narrower than a human hair. They take advantage of the properties of liquids and gases to separate and better allow microsensors to analyze their constituent elements

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