显微流是将液相生化反应缩小至非常小的量，这样大系列的化学反应可以在相同的微点阵状态下进行。发展显微流系统的关键是能够维持点阵中每个元素所需的溶液的足够的量，并按时空要求准确地送到每个点。其它还包括降低生化反应中出现的问题如速度和加热的弥散。有几家公司生产能够进行生物分子筛选、合成和探测所需的大规模化学反应的显微射流技术设备。因为大量化学反应被支持着，点阵可以设计成具备多种功能。显微射流技术应用的例子包括生物靶子的筛选、组合文库的形成、DNA寡聚体的合成，蛋白质多态性研究所有这些都因为显微射流技术而可以大规模进行。

Microfluidics is the minitiarization of fluid-based biochemistry to very small volumes such that a large series of chemical reactions can be performed in parallel in a microarray format (see Microarray). The essential issue with developing microfluidics-based devices is the ability to maintain adequate access to the solutions needed in each element of the array, delivered both spatially (to each addressable location in the array) and temporally (at the appropriate time in the reaction). Other issues include scaling-down problems that occur with biochemical reactions, such as diffusion rates and heating. Several companies have now manufactured microfluidics devices (“labs-on-a-chip”) that allow the high-throughput chemistries needed in screening, synthesis and probing of biological molecules. Because a large number of chemistries are supported, the arrays are customizable (“programmable”) to perform a variety of functions. Examples of microfluidics-based applications include screening of biological targets, synthesis of combinatorial libraries, synthesis of DNA oligomers, and analysis of polymorphic proteins, all of which can be performed in large high-throughput parallel arrays because of microfluidics.