Detailed droplet routing and complexity characterization on a digital microfluidic biochip

Digital microfluidic systems (DMFS) are poised to provide fully automated, high-throughput, dynamically reconfigurable sensing devices superior to those available today. Efficient droplet routing algorithms for these systems have not yet been established, though several solutions have been proposed. Such algorithms are ultimately required to generate droplet movement schedules and must be robust enough to handle the inevitable increases in problem complexity that will come as this technology matures. We have proposed a new solution based on a classic VLSI lineprobe algorithm to meet these demands for the detailed routing of droplets within a multi-stage algorithm. The most significant addition includes a sub-algorithm that calculates the routing complexity for any DMFS configuration based on the size, shape, number, type, and distribution of rectilinear obstacles throughout a DMFS biochip surface. By determining the complexity of the routing of each droplet, routing schedules may be prioritized, minimizing the number of fluidic and time constraint violations that affect high priority droplet routes. The complexity characterizations generated by our algorithm may also be used to create consistent, standardized benchmarks for the evaluation of existing droplet routing solutions. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm has been verified using the simulation presented in this paper.

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