Imaging Technologies for Microfluidic Biochips

Abstract

With the growing interest in biochips, numerous efforts have been made to recapitulate a more reliable and physiologically relevant environment within chips, resulting in significant advances in biochip technologies. Although there have been substantial improvements in biochip fabrication technologies, less effort has been devoted to improving imaging or microscopic methods specialized for observing in-chip structures. As biochip structures become increasingly sophisticated and the complexity of scaffolds mixed with cells and the extracellular matrix grows, the demand for customized imaging technology for biochips is expected to increase rapidly. In response to these demands, in this review, we briefly introduce various imaging technologies based on the complexity and size of imaging targets embedded in the chip.