DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION I.
General The present invention generally provides microfluidic devices which incorporate improved channel and reservoir geometries, as well as methods of using these devices in the analysis, preparation, or other manipulation of fluid borne materials, to achieve higher throughputs of such materials through these devices, with lower cost, material and/or space requirements.
As used herein, the term "microfluidic device or system" generally refers to a device or system which incorporates at least two intersecting channels or fluid conduits, where at least one of the channels has at least one cross sectional dimension in the range of from about 0.
1 to about 500 .
mu.
m, preferably from about 1 to about 100 .
mu.
m.
The microfluidic devices of the present invention comprise a central body structure in which the various microfluidic elements are disposed.
The body structure includes an exterior portion or surface, as well as an interior portion which defines the various microscale channels and/or chambers of the overall microfluidic device.
For example, the body structures of the microfluidic devices of the present invention typically employ a solid or semi-solid substrate that is typically planar in structure, i.
e.
, substantially flat or having at least one flat surface.
Suitable substrates may be fabricated from any one of a variety of materials, or combinations of materials.
Often, the planar substrates are manufactured using solid substrates common in the fields of microfabrication, e.
g.
, silica-based substrates, such as glass, quartz, silicon or polysilicon, as well as other known substrates, i.
e.
, gallium arsenide.
In the case of these substrates, common microfabrication techniques, such as photolithographic techniques, wet chemical etching, micromachining, i.
e.
, drilling, milling and the like, may be readily applied in the fabrication of microfluidic devices and substrates.
Alternatively, polymeric substrate materials may be used to fabricate the devices of the present invention, including, e
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Semiconductor manufacture 
