Abstract: The inventive concept described herein concerns a microfluidic component, comprising a membrane actuator with a membrane element and an actuator element for deflecting the membrane element. A signal generation device is configured to generate an electric control signal having a time-variant signal curve for controlling the membrane actuator, by which the actuator element actuates the membrane element. A signal processing device is configured to detect, during operation of the microfluidic component, an influence on the temporal signal curve of the control signal, caused by one or more external influencing factors, and, on the basis of this influence on the temporal signal curve, to identify and/or classify at least one causal external influencing factor.