Book excerpt: The 1st volume of 'Advances in Microelectronics: Reviews' Book Series contains 19 chapters written by 72 authors from academia and industry from 16 countries. With unique combination of information in each volume, the 'Advances in Microelectronics: Reviews' Book Series will be of value for scientists and engineers in industry and at universities. In order to offer a fast and easy reading of the state of the art of each topic, every chapter in this book is independent and self-contained. All chapters have the same structure: first an introduction to specific topic under study; second particular field description including sensing applications. Each of chapter is ending by well selected list of references with books, journals, conference proceedings and web sites. This book ensures that readers will stay at the cutting edge of the field and get the right and effective start point and road map for the further researches and developments.