A glowing future for lab on a chip testing standards

Testing standards are more fundamental from a metrological perspective and less controversial from an industrial perspective than product standards, representing a path of less resistance towards the standardization and commercialization of lab on a chip technology. In this Focus article, the development of a lab on a chip testing standard is considered in the context of autofluorescence. This material property of microfluidic and nanofluidic devices is of increasing importance due to the growing interest in sensitive fluorescence measurements performed in chips fabricated from plastics.