Microchip-Based Capillary Electrophoresis Systems

Microchip-based capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems have enjoyed impressive advancement in the past few years (1 –3 ). Up until now, CE array chips have been fabricated based upon the well-understood behavior of a single channel chip system. Different materials (e.g., silicon [4 ], glass [5 ], and plastics [6 ]) have been used. A variety of different fabrication processes have also been developed to accommodate the complicated requirements and materials used for making such a device. Microchip-based CE systems have demonstrated uses in diverse applications such as the separation of amino acids (7 ), analysis of blood serum cortisol (8 ), examination of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons (9 ), and analysis of metal ion complexes (10 ). In this chapter, aspects related to chip-based CEs will be reviewed.