Characterizing the emergence of a technological field: Expectations, agendas and networks in Lab-on-a-chip technologies

Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

Volumn 18, Issue 3-4, 2006, Pages 411-428

  van Merkerk, Rutger O ^a   Robinson, Douglas K R ^b  

^a UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY; RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT; SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT; TECHNOLOGY POLICY; TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER;

EID: 33746178732     PISSN: 09537325     EISSN: 14653990     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09537320600777184     Document Type: Article

References (65)

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22. Placing the visions and artefacts in the central box, was for clarity alone. This diagram is used to show which elements are emerging in the field over time, not the linkages, which will be explored in follow-up investigations.
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29. To illustrate the increase in research efforts, Kalmholz (see A. E. Kalmholz, Proliferation of micro-fluidics in literature and intellectual property, Lab on a Chip, 4, 2004, pp. 16 N-20 N), reports a growth in microfluidics publications from a few in 1990, ca 50 in 1998 to almost 600 in 2003. The same trend holds for patents, from the first patent in 1993, ca 20 in 1998 to almost 350 in 2003.
30. A cleanroom is an environment that has a low dust atmosphere. For the production of chips this is needed, because dust particles can interfere with the production material during the process and cause errors in the small-scale structures.
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33. Feature-size is the measure of how small you can make structures in a material.
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36. Kan et al., op. cit., Ref. 25.
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38. The most and easiest to use plastic is poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). See J. C. McDonald, D. C. Duffy, J. R. Anderson, D. T. Chiu, H. Wu, O. L. A. Schueller & G. Whitesides, Fabrication of microfluidic systems in poly(dimethylsiloxane)', Electrophoresis, 21, 2000, pp. 27-50.
39. Becker & Gärtner, op. cit., Ref. 29.
40. Ibid.
41. The data was gathered as follows. All papers in the all MicroTAS proceedings were scanned for keywords. For the plastics example these were PDMS, PMMA, polymer and plastic. For the microreactor example these were (micro)reactor, synthesis and reaction. Cross-referencing was performed, because both authors engaged in this activity. This type of keyword search was for a specific dataset and arena, thus avoiding the heterogeneity problems argued earlier in the paper, with regard to our investigation of statements in texts.
42. Lee et al., op. cit., Ref. 31.
43. 2-laser micromachining and back-end processing for rapid production of PMMA-based microfluidic systems, Lab on a Chip, 2, 2002, pp. 242-246.
44. Lee et al., op. cit., Ref. 31.
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48. W. Ehrfeld, V. Hessel and H. Lowe, Microreactors: New Technology for Modern Chemistry (Weiheim, Germany, Wiley-VCH, 2000)
49. Haswell, op. cit., Ref. 20
50. D. M. Roberge, L. Ducry, N. Bieler, P. Cretton & B. Zimmerman, Microeactor technology: A revolution for the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries, Chemical Engineering Technology, 28(3), 2005, pp. 318-323.
51. Microreactors is a good example, because it is a field that emerged out of the same possibilities as Lab-on-a-chip, but has developed rather separately for a number of years. More recently (also out of a need for Lab-on-a-chip technology) microreactors have been seduced (actively and passively) by the Lab-on-a-chip field, partly out of a necessity and therefore enabling more complex lab-on-a-chip applications (which are still called lab-on-a-chip, but now including reaction chambers to do the necessary synthesis for analysis/diagnostics).
52. J.-I. Yoshida, A. Nahaki, T. Iwasaki & S. Suga, Enhancement of chemical selectivity by microreactors, Chemical Engineering Technology, 28(3), 2005, pp. 259-266.
53. Meaning the first demonstration of microreactors.
54. Haswell, op. cit., Ref. 20.
55. Ibid., p. 1R.
56. K. F. Jensen, Microreaction engineering - is small better?, Journal of Chemical Engineering Science, 56, 2001, pp. 293-303.
57. It has been shown that only 1000 microreactors operating in parallel can produce 1 kg of material a day. See S. J. Haswell, R. J. Middleton, B. O'Sullivan, V. Skelton, P. Watts & P. Styring, The application of microreactors to synthetic chemistry, Chemical Communication, 2001, pp. 391-398.
58. Yoshida et al., op. cit., Ref. 44. Multi-phase reactions means that in the synthesis of a chemical compounda number of intermediary stages are passed where another compound is created then transformed in a number of steps until the final compound is obtained. In many cases microreaction technology offers possible multi-phase reactions which where not possible previously.
59. T. Bayer, J. Jenck & M. Matlosz, IMPULSE - a new approach to design, Chemical Engineering Technology, 28(4), 2005, pp. 431-438.
60. Ibid.
61. Interview with Stephen Haswell, 28 June 2005, University of Hull, UK.
62. Bayer et al., op. cit., Ref. 51
63. Relative to the investments being made into microreactors in the Lab-on-a-chip field.
64. J. M. Utterback, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation (Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press, 1994).
65. Rip et al., op. cit., Ref. 5.