Defect-Aware Synthesis of Droplet-Based Microfluidic Biochips

Recent advances in microfluidics technology have led to the emergence of miniaturized biochip devices for biochemical analysis. A promising category of microfluidic biochips relies on the principle of electrowetting-on-dielectric, whereby discrete droplets of nanoliter volumes can be manipulated using an array of electrodes. As chemists adapt more bioassays for concurrent execution on such "digital" droplet-based microfluidic platforms, system integration, design complexity, and the need for defect tolerance are expected to increase rapidly. Automated design tools for defect-tolerant and multifunctional biochips are important for the emerging marketplace, especially for low-cost, portable, and disposable devices for clinical diagnostics. We propose a unified synthesis method that combines defect-tolerant architectural synthesis with defect-aware physical design. The proposed approach allows architectural-level design choices and defecttolerant physical design decisions to be...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: VLSID
• Authors: Tao Xu, Krishnendu Chakrabarty, Fei Su
• Keywords: Computer Architecture, Microfluidic Biochips, Miniaturized Biochip Devices, Unified Synthesis Method, VLSID 2007