Abstract: Technologies to microfabricate electrochemical sensors and systems are rapidly advancing and win surely have an impact on critical fields such as medicine, environment, and information processing. It is a good opportunity to review the state of the art and trends in the technologies developed in this field during the last two decades of the 20th century and prepare for the coming decades. Here, developed electrochemical microsensors and microsystems will be reviewed in terms of techniques and performance along with the problems left as issues for the next century.

Abstract: A microfluidic system for the analysis of the activities of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT) was fabricated. The device consists of a glass chip with a micro-electrochemical l-glutamate sensor and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sheet with a Y-shaped micro-flow channel. A sample solution and a substrate solution for the enzymes were introduced from two injection ports at the end of the flow channel. When the flows were stopped, substrates in a solution mixed immediately with either of the enzymes by diffusion in a mixing channel. l-Glutamate produced by the enzymatic reaction of GOT or GPT in the flow channel was detected by using the l-glutamate sensor. A distinct current increase was observed immediately after mixing, and the initial slope of the response curve varied in proportion to the activity of GOT or GPT. The relation between the slope of the response curve and the enzyme activity was linear between 7 and 228 U L-1 for GOT and 9 and 250 U L-1 for GPT. The quality of the response curve was improved with an increase in the channel height. The measurement based on the rate analysis in the micro-flow channel facilitated the reduction of the influence of interferents. The influence of the viscosity of the sample solution was also checked for the analysis of real samples. The determination of the enzyme activities was also conducted in a system with micropumps fabricated for a sample injection. Two solutions could be mixed in the mixing channel, and the activity of the enzymes could be measured as in the experiments using microsyringe pumps.