Microfluidics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Lab-on-a-Chip, Organs-on-Chips, Continuous Flow), By Technology (Medical, Non-Medical), By Material, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027

Industry Insights

The global microfluidics market size was evaluated at USD 13.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to register a CAGR of 11.3% through the forecast period. Rise in demand for point-of-care (POC) devices is expected to significantly drive the market. Microfluidics-based devices need a fraction of the sample for data interpretation. The application of microfluidics has enabled conventional laboratory procedures to be shifted to lab-on-a-chip.

The market is also driven by demand for high-throughput screening methodologies, low-volume sample analysis, demand for In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD), and development of advanced lab-on-a-chip technologies. Moreover, microfluidics offers high return on investment and helps in cost control by minimizing errors.

Microfluidics has been successfully applied in the manufacture of a wide range of commercial products. For instance, integrated fluidic circuits manufactured by Fluidigm Corporation provides a high sample throughput, low-cost solution for multiplex single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping. Similarly, Quanta Life offers droplet-based microfluidic solutions to carry out digital PCR for quantitation of nucleic acids.

LabChip systems offered by Caliper Life Sciences makes use of a glass microfluidic chip to get high-throughput electrophoretic and fluorescent analysis of nucleic acid and protein fragments. Technological advancements are major growth drivers for the market. Organ-on-chips, for instance, are microfluidic devices used for culturing living cells in micrometer-sized and continuously perfused chambers to model physiological functions of organs and tissues.

In February 2019, Akura Flow - organ-on-a-chip manufactured by InSphero’s was showcased in the scientific journal SLAS Technology. The company presented its 3D human tissue models and Akura Flow system for drug development and discovery at SLAS2019. The company has been working in this arena since 2011, in collaboration with AstraZeneca, ETH Zürich, and other major academic groups in Europe.

Paper-based diagnostic tests are expected to gain prominence in the near future. Professionals from Harvard University and the University of Washington are developing an application for paper-based microfluidics for nucleic acid testing. They have also received a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for this work. This will help medical practitioners detect pathogenic DNA for the diagnosis of a wide range of infections and chronic disorders.

Technology Insights

The medical technology segment dominated the market based on revenue. Microfluidics offers three major benefits to POC diagnostics: faster turnaround times, smaller sample volumes, and lesser test costs. These benefits are gradually being utilized for the development of POC devices for diagnosis and detection of a variety of conditions-from cancer to infectious diseases.

For instance, the Laboratory of Integrated Bio-Medical/Nanotechnology & Applications (LIBNA) at the University of Illinois recently designed a microfluidic point-of-care sepsis chip that can quantify CD64 expression levels on neutrophils and total WBC counts in about 30 minutes, just using 10 microliters of a blood sample.  

Microfluidic PCR devices have the capability of automating the preparation of the PCR reaction mix, which, in turn, minimizes the risk of false positives and contamination by human error. The application of microfluidics in PCR has been significant in recent years as it enables the whole biological process to be integrated, resulting in multiplexed, high-throughput, and highly parallel assays. These devices are capable of measuring gene expression from hundreds of single cells per run. 

Application Insights

The lab-on-a-chip segment accounted for a major share in the microfluidics market in 2019 and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In the field of molecular biology, lab-on-a-chip offers high detection speed while maintaining the same sensitivity during DNA or RNA amplification and detection procedures. Lab-on-a-chip also allows rapid sequencing of DNA probes.

Elveflow offers the fastest qPCR system - Fastgene system, which detects bacteria and viruses within 7 minutes. Moreover, nanopore technologies hold great potential in facilitating rapid genome sequencing of DNA probes than actual lab-on-a-chip using an array technique. Similarly, these systems hold lucrative opportunities for immunoassays that can be performed within 10 seconds instead of 10 minutes when done by macroscopic technologies.

Non-medical applications of lab-on-a-chip research focus on the synthesis of chemicals. These systems undergo fast heating and cooling processes at a microscale level, thereby allowing high efficiency during chemical reactions. Thus, much research has been performed on utilizing lab-on-a-chip as highly parallelized and micro-sized microchemical reactors. These devices also deal with dangerous and explosive compounds.

Material Insights

The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based microfluidic chips segment held the maximum revenue share in 2019 and is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. PDMS is a widely used polymer, especially in fast prototyping microfluidic devices. These polymers are highly acceptable by the academic community owing to their ease of fabrication and low cost. However, these polymers are hydrophobic, which makes microchannels difficult to operate in aqueous solutions as hydrophobic analytes are adsorbed onto the surface of PDMS, eventually interfering with the analysis. To combat such issues, new PDMS surface modifications are available to address challenges due to hydrophobicity.

Polymer-based microfluidic devices act as an alternative to glass and silicon-based microfluidic devices. These materials, compared to silicon and glass, are affordable, easy to access, robust, and require rapid fabrication techniques. Polymers are promising materials in microfluidic chip applications as they can be employed for mass production using casting, soft lithography, hot embossing, and injection molding techniques.

Regional Insights

North America was the largest segment in the market due to local presence of well-established market leaders, rise in the number of studies being undertaken to enhance sample volume optimization, introduction of advanced technologies, and robust demand for POC diagnostics. Moreover, active participation of research institutes in this region for the development of novel microfluidic devices is expected to maintain the region’s dominance.

In August 2019, researchers operating in analytical chemistry developed renewable and biodegradable microfluidic chips, wherein wood was used as a key material. Researchers incorporated a laser printer to create small channels in birch plywood chips. This wood-based microfluidics chip was used for protein measurement in live bacteria; the results obtained were similar to a plastic chip.

Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest-growing market owing to sophisticated research infrastructure, affordable labor, and adoption of microfluidic platforms. International players have shown interest in investing in this untapped market. In November 2019, Organ-on-a-Chip Asia and SelectBIO Microfluidics organized a conference in Japan to address novel technologies in the fields of Organ-on-a-Chip, Lab-on-a-Chip, and Microfluidics.

Microfluidics Market Share Insights

Some of the key industry contributors are Illumina, Inc.; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd; PerkinElmer, Inc.; Agilent Technologies, Inc.;Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.; Danaher Corporation; Life Technologies Corporation; Abbott Laboratories Thermo Fisher Scientific; Qiagen; Biomérieux; Elveflow; Cellix Ltd.; Micronit Micro Technologies B.V.; and Fluidigm Corporation.

Companies have been introducing new products to strengthen their market position. In March 2019, Dolomite Microfluidics launched µEncapsulator Systems, its novel microencapsulation system. The system can encapsulate nearly 300,000 cells into monodisperse droplets in a span of 15 minutes. In September 2019, Fluidigm Corporation launched a novel microfluidics-based workflow - Advanta RNA-Seq NGS Library Prep Kit, designed for the preparation of RNA sequencing libraries. This strategy was aimed at expanding Juno Microfluidic System’s applications across high-throughput laboratories.

Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis on the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2016 to 2027. For this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global microfluidics market report based on technology, application, material, and region:

• Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Medical/Healthcare

    • PCR & RT-PCR

    • Gel Electrophoresis

    • Microarrays

    • ELISA

    • Others

  • Non-Medical

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Lab-on-a-chip

    • Medical

    • Non-Medical

  • Organs-on-chips

    • Medical

    • Non-Medical

  • Continuous flow microfluidics

    • Medical

    • Non-Medical

  • Optofluidics and microfluidics

    • Medical

    • Non-Medical

  • Acoustofluidics and microfluidics

    • Medical

    • Non-Medical

  • Electrophoresis and microfluidics

    • Medical

    • Non-Medical

• Material Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Silicon

  • Glass

  • Polymer

  • PDMS

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • U.K.

    • Germany

    • France

  • Asia Pacific

    • India

    • China

    • Japan

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

    • Mexico

  • Middle East & Africa

    • South Africa