Electrochemical microsystem technologies: from fundamental research to technical systems

The interdisciplinary field of electrochemical microsystem technologies (EM ST) has a large impact on electrochemistry, electrochemical engineering, mi croengineering, material science, chemical analysis and its applications in biology and medicine. EMST include electrochemical reactions applied in mi crosystem technologies (MST) as well as MST applied in electrochemistry. Fundamental research refers to the scaling-down of reactions taking place i n the mu m range. Control of electrochemical microreactions, their advantag es and applications are discussed. The technical requirement of mass produc tion presumes the scaling-up of the microreaction to a multifold macroscopi c process. This is demonstrated for electrochemical processes, e.g, the LIG A process, as well as for MST for electrochemistry, e.g. the Foturan(R) tec hnology. The final industrial process requires the realization of multistep processes which is illustrated with the phosphating process and the printe d circuit board manufacturing us examples. Electrochemical microsystems are presented and classified by functionality and complexity. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.