The microtechnology used in the miniaturized environments could also be
understood as the integration between the possibilities offered by microfabrication
and microfluidics. Both microfabrication (micromachining) and microfluidics are
inversely connected with the grade of complexity in the analytical chemistry
process. Indeed, while microfabrication plays the prominent role in the separation
and detection systems, the physical control of the process has a prominent role in
all steps of sample preparation. In addition, the required microfabrication is very
sophisticated in the sample preparation step