Design tools for digital microfluidic biochips: toward functional diversification and more than moore

  • Authors:

  • Krishnendu Chakrabarty;Richard B. Fair;Jun Zeng

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC;Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Microfluidics-based biochips enable the precise control of nanoliter volumes of biochemical samples and reagents. They combine electronics with biology, and they integrate various bioassay operations, such as sample preparation, analysis, separation, and detection. Compared to conventional laboratory procedures, which are cumbersome and expensive, miniaturized biochips offer the advantages of higher sensitivity, lower cost due to smaller sample and reagent volumes, system integration, and less likelihood of human error. This paper first describes the droplet-based "digital" microfluidic technology platform and emerging applications. The physical principles underlying droplet actuation are next described. Finally, the paper presents computer-aided design tools for simulation, synthesis and chip optimization. These tools target modeling and simulation, scheduling, module placement, droplet routing, pin-constrained chip design, and testing.