Many promising expectative claim that health & biotechnologies field will have a pervasive and profound impact on the future of microtechnologies. Demand to address problems like miniaturization of existing devices, increasing in biocompatibility and functionality, or decreasing in time for measuring and analysis are needed.

Medical and biomedical markets show promise in a wide variety of applications as shown in Fig. 2.14 [14]. They could be grouped as:

a	b	c
d	e	f
2.14 Health & biotechnology applications; (a) In Vivo Magnetically guided Micro-Robots ETH Zurich [11]; (b) Hearing aid device [27]; (c) Microfluidic cytological tool, for cell counting and separation [28]; (d) Bucal Tubes and brackets for dental applications [29]; (e) Lilliput chip for microbiological diagnostic system [30]; (f) Micro-gripper for surgery [31].

·         Implantable systems: cardiac pacemakers, implantable hearing aids;

·         Diagnostic systems: blood pressure sensors, glucose sensors;

·         Minimal-invasive surgery or non-invasive surgery: endoscopy, tools for minimally invasive surgery (see Fig. 2.15);

·         Pharmaceutical applications: intelligent drug delivery systems and smart pharmaceuticals;

·         Biotechnical applications: biochip/lab-on a chip technology, nano particles in gene technology and therapy;

·         Biofunctional devices: tissue engineering for bioartificial organs and skin.

2.15 World Market Share of Minimally Invasive Surgery Products [15].

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