Required technology breakthroughs to assume widely accepted biosensors

Silicon microsensors have been very successful over the last decade in a wide variety of applications. Although commercialization of silicon-based biosensors has been slow, careful applications of microfabrication technologies to the development of biosensors will drive the formation of many new markets. The most promising high-volume, emerging markets include clinical analysis, health care, and environmental. For example, the worldwide sales of clinical sensors are expected to reach several hundreds of millions by 2000, whereas the total worldwide market for biosensors is forecast to reach $1 billion by the year 2000. In this article, an overview of current and potential markets is presented with an emphasis on technological barriers to overcome before biosensors will become more widely accepted. We start by explaining the relative success of physical sensors compared to biosensors. Subsequently, we review several biosensor approaches and techniques and their associated problems. Finally, the markets that these sensors are meant to serve are analyzed.