Impact of surface roughness on Dielectrophoretically assisted concentration of microorganisms over PCB based platforms

Recent advances in bio-microsystem integration and Lab-on-PCB technology

The concept of micro-total analysis systems (µTAS) introduced in the early 1990s revolutionized the development of lab-on-a-chip (LoC) technologies by miniaturizing and automating complex laboratory processes. Despite their potential in diagnostics, drug development, and environmental monitoring, the widespread adoption of LoC systems has been hindered by challenges in scalability, integration, and cost-effective mass production. Traditional substrates like silicon, glass, and polymers struggle to meet the multifunctional requirements of practical applications. Lab-on-Printed Circuit Board (Lab-on-PCB) technology has emerged as a transformative solution, leveraging the cost-efficiency, scalability, and precision of PCB fabrication techniques. This platform facilitates the seamless integration of microfluidics, sensors, and actuators within a single device, enabling complex, multifunctional systems suitable for real-world deployment. Recent advancements have demonstrated Lab-on-PCB's versatility across biomedical applications, such as point-of-care diagnostics, electrochemical biosensing, and molecular detection, as well as drug development and environmental monitoring. This review examines the evolution of Lab-on-PCB technology over the past eight years, focusing on its applications and impact within the research community. By analyzing recent progress in PCB-based microfluidics and biosensing, this work highlights how Lab-on-PCB systems address key technical barriers, paving the way for scalable and practical lab-on-chip solutions. The growing academic and industrial interest in Lab-on-PCB is underscored by a notable increase in publications and patents, signaling its potential for commercialization and broader adoption.

Printed Circuit Boards: The Layers' Functions for Electronic and Biomedical Engineering

This paper describes the fabrication opportunities that Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) offer for electronic and biomedical engineering. Historically, PCB substrates have been used to support the components of the electronic devices, linking them using copper lines, and providing input and output pads to connect the rest of the system. In addition, this kind of substrate is an emerging material for biomedical engineering thanks to its many interesting characteristics, such as its commercial availability at a low cost with very good tolerance and versatility, due to its multilayer characteristics; that is, the possibility of using several metals and substrate layers. The alternative uses of copper, gold, Flame Retardant 4 (FR4) and silver layers, together with the use of vias, solder masks and a rigid and flexible substrate, are noted. Among other uses, these characteristics have been using to develop many sensors, biosensors and actuators, and PCB-based lab-on chips; for example, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amplification devices for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). In addition, several applications of these devices are going to be noted in this paper, and two tables summarizing the layers' functions are included in the discussion: the first one for metallic layers, and the second one for the vias, solder mask, flexible and rigid substrate functions.