Droplet routing in the synthesis of digital microfluidic biochips

same level of system-level CAD support that is now commonplace in the IC industry.Recent advances in microfluidics are expected to lead to sensor systems for high-throughput biochemical analysis. CAD tools are needed to handle increased design complexity for such systems. Analogous to classical VLSI synthesis, a top-down design automation approach can shorten the design cycle and reduce human effort. We focus here on the droplet routing problem, which is a key issue in biochip physical design automation. We develop the first systematic droplet routing method that can be integrated with biochip synthesis. The proposed approach minimizes the number of cells used for droplet routing, while satisfying constraints imposed by throughput considerations and fluidic properties. A real-life biochemical application is used to evaluate the proposed method. Analogous to classical VLSI synthesis, a top-down system-level design automation approach can be used to relieve biochip users from the burden ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: DATE
• Authors: Fei Su, William L. Hwang, Krishnendu Chakrabarty
• Keywords: Biochip, Classical Vlsi Synthesis, DATE 2006, Design Automation, Hardware