A Microfluidic Feed Forward Loop Pulse Generator for Molecular Communication

Abstract

Abstract-The design of communication systems capable of processing and exchanging information through molecules and chemical processes is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, which holds the promise to revolutionize how we realize computing and communication devices. While molecular communication (MC) theory has had major developments in recent years, more practical aspects in the design and prototyping of components capable of MC functionalities remain less explored. In this paper, motivated by a bulk of MC literature on information transmission via molecular pulse modulation, the design of a pulse generator is proposed as an MC component able to output a predefined pulse-shaped molecular concentration upon a triggering input. The chemical processes at the basis of this pulse generator are inspired by how cells generate pulse-shaped molecular signals in biology. At the same time, the slow-speed, unreliability, and non-scalability of these processes in cells are overcome with a microfluidic-based implementation based on standard reproducible components with well-defined design parameters. Mathematical models are presented to demonstrate the analytical tractability of each component, and are validated against a numerical finite element simulation. Finally, the complete pulse generator design is implemented and simulated in a standard engineering software framework, where the predefined nature of the output pulse shape is demonstrated together with its dependence on practical design parameters.

Designing Molecular Circuits for Approximate Maximum a Posteriori Demodulation of Concentration Modulated Signals

“…Lastly, there is also work on using chemical reactions to produce transmission signals for molecular communication, see [21].…”

A Comprehensive Survey on Hybrid Communication in Context of Molecular Communication and Terahertz Communication for Body-Centric Nanonetworks

“…Inspired by the biological circuits in synthetic biology, a chemical circuits based on a series of faster chemical reactions were designed to achieve the transformation of the timing varying information molecules flow from the digital signal to the analog signal inside a designed microfluidic devices in [153]. This work provides a novel research direction for performing signal processing using chemical circuits inside microfluidic device, and also an alternative method for proof-of-concept analogues of biological circuits with potentially higher speed.…”

Chemical Reactions-Based Microfluidic Transmitter and Receiver Design for Molecular Communication

“…Despite substantial research outcomes in the above theoretical study, the design and prototyping of components with MC functionalities has been less explored except from some works [1], [14]- [19], partly because of the highly interdisciplinary technical knowledge and tools required to engineer these systems in practice. Existing MC prototypes can be classified into macroscale MC prototypes [14]- [16] and nanoscale or microscale MC prototypes [1], [17]- [19].…”

“…Despite substantial research outcomes in the above theoretical study, the design and prototyping of components with MC functionalities has been less explored except from some works [1], [14]- [19], partly because of the highly interdisciplinary technical knowledge and tools required to engineer these systems in practice. Existing MC prototypes can be classified into macroscale MC prototypes [14]- [16] and nanoscale or microscale MC prototypes [1], [17]- [19]. The macroscale testbeds in [14]- [16] considered the information sharing over a distance via alcohol and odor particles, but these macroscale testbeds are inapplicable or inappropriate to be operated in very small dimensions or in specific environment, such as in the water or in the human body.…”