Artificial cilia-based microfluidics is a promising alternative in lab-on-a-chip applications which provides an efficient way to manipulate fluid flow in a microfluidic environment with high precision. Additionally, it can induce favorable local flows toward practical biomedical applications. The endowment of artificial cilia with their anatomy and capabilities such as mixing, pumping, transporting, and sensing lead to advance next-generation applications including precision medicine, digital nanofluidics, and lab-on-chip systems. This review summarizes the importance and significance of the artificial cilia, delineates the recent progress in artificial cilia-based microfluidics toward microfluidic application, and provides future perspectives. The presented knowledge and insights are envisaged to pave the way for innovative advances for the research communities in miniaturization.

A multi-purpose microfluidic device that can be used for both micromixing and micropropulsion operations has always been in demand, as it would simplify the various process flows associated with the current micro-total analysis systems. In this aspect, we propose a biomimetic artificial cilia-based microfluidic device that can efficiently facilitate both mixing and propulsion sequentially at the micro-scale. A rectangular microfluidic device consists of four straight microchannels that were fabricated using the microfabrication technique. An array of artificial cilia was embedded within one of the channel’s confinement through the aforementioned technique. A series of image processing and micro-particle image velocimetry technologies were employed to elucidate the micromixing and micropropulsion phenomena. Experiment results demonstrate that, with this proposed microfluidic device, a maximum micromixing efficiency and flow rate of 0.84 and 0.089 µL/min, respectively, can be achieved. In addition to its primary application as a targeted drug delivery system, where a drug needs to be homogeneously mixed with its carrier prior to its administration into the target body, this microfluidic device can be used as a micro-total analysis system for the handling of other biological specimens.