Chapter 8 - Commercial microfluidic devices and their cost analysis

This chapter attempts to describe one of the most important and most underestimated tasks in the innovation process, the process of making our microfluidic invention and development commercially successful. Therefore the chapter focuses on a couple of important questions like how successful our product might be and how it distinguishes from others and what we can do if we are not having answers to such questions. Subsequently key facts about the commercial microfluidic market are given to describe afterward a typical product cycle from the development phase into production and what subprocesses will influence this cycle. The prediction of what will influence our success is always difficult, but some key aspects like strategy, initial questions to ask, and IP strategy are discussed. Finally, some cost drivers of the microfluidic device production are presented and discussed. In summary an analysis of important aspects of the commercialization of microfluidic devices is presented, and we hope to help the reader to avoid fundamental mistakes on their way to success.