Since the inception of digital microfluidics, the synthesis problems of scheduling, placement and routing have been performed offline (before runtime) due to their algorithmic complexity. However, with the increasing maturity of digital microfluidic research, online synthesis is becoming a realistic possibility that can bring new benefits in the areas of dynamic scheduling, control-flow, fault-tolerance and live-feedback. This paper contributes to the digital microfluidic synthesis process by introducing a fast, novel path-based scheduling algorithm that produces better schedules than list scheduler for assays with high fan-out; path scheduler computes schedules in milliseconds, making it suitable for both offline and online synthesis.
We introduce an online synthesis flow for digital microfluidic biochips, which will enable real-time response to errors and control flow. The objective of this flow is to facilitate fast assay synthesis while minimally compromising the quality of results. In particular, we show that a virtual topology, which constrains the allowable locations of assay operations such as mixing, dilution, sensing, etc., in lieu of traditional placement, can significantly speed up the synthesis process without significantly lengthening assay execution time.
Abstract-We introduce an online synthesis flow, focusing primarily on the virtual topology and operation binder, for digital microfluidic biochips, which will enable real-time response to errors and control flow. The objective of this flow is to facilitate fast assay synthesis while minimally compromising the quality of results. In particular, we show that a virtual topology, which constrains the allowable locations of assay operations such as mixing, dilution, sensing, etc., in lieu of traditional placement, can significantly speed up the synthesis process without significantly lengthening assay execution time. We present a base virtual topology and show how it can be leveraged to reduce algorithmic runtimes and guarantee rout ability. We later present several variations of the virtual topology and present experimental results demonstrating best-design practices. We present two binding solutions. The first is a left-edge binding algorithm, while the second is a more intelligent path-based binding algorithm that leverages spatial and temporal locality to produce superior results.
As digital microfluidic biochips (DM FBs) have matured over the last decade, efforts have been made to 1.) reduce the cost, and 2.) produce general-purpose chips. While work done to generalize DM FBs typically depends on the flexibility of individually controlled electrodes, such devices have high wiring complexity, which requires costly multi-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs). In contrast, pin-constrained DM FBs reduce the wiring complexity, but reduce the flexibility of droplet coordination. We present a field-programmable pin-constrained DM FB that leverages the cost-savings of pin-constrained designs, but is general-purpose, rather than assay -specific. We show that with just a few more pins than the state-of-the-art pin-constrained designs, we can execute arbitrary assays almost as fast as the most recent general-purpose DM FB designs.
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