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Digital Microfluidic Biochips: A Vision for Functional Diversity and More than Moore

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Book cover VLSI 2010 Annual Symposium

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 105))

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Abstract

Microfluidics-based biochips are revolutionizing high-throughput sequencing, parallel immunoassays‚ blood chemistry for clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery. These emerging devices enable the precise control of nanoliter volumes of biochemical samples and reagents. They combine electronics with biology, and they integrate various bioassay operations, such as sample preparation, analysis, separation, and detection. Compared to conventional laboratory procedures, which are cumbersome and expensive, miniaturized biochips offer the advantages of higher sensitivity, lower cost due to smaller sample and reagent volumes, system integration, and less likelihood of human error. This chapter provides an overview of droplet-based “digital” microfluidic biochips. It describes emerging computer-aided design (CAD) tools for the automated synthesis and optimization of biochips from bioassay protocols. Recent advances in fluidic-operation scheduling, module placement, droplet routing, pin-constrained chip design, and testing are presented. These CAD techniques allow biochip users to concentrate on the development of nanoscale bioassays, leaving chip optimization and implementation details to design-automation tools.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Krishnendu Chakrabarty & Yang Zhao

Authors
  1. Krishnendu Chakrabarty
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  2. Yang Zhao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krishnendu Chakrabarty .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Messolonghi, Dept. Telecommunication Systems &, Technological Educational Institute of, National Road, Nafpaktos, 303 00, Greece

    Nikolaos Voros

  2. School of Electrical Engineering &, Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Central Florida Blvd. 4000, Orlando, 32816-2362, Florida, USA

    Amar Mukherjee

  3. , Informatics & MM, Technological Educational Institute of P, Rhga Feraiou, Pyrgos, 27100, Greece

    Nicolas Sklavos

  4. , Dept. of Computer Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese, Terma Karaiskaki, Tripolis, 22100, Greece

    Konstantinos Masselos

  5. , Institut für Technik der Informationsver, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Vinzenz-Priessnitzstr. 1, Karlsruhe, 76131, Germany

    Michael Huebner

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Chakrabarty, K., Zhao, Y. (2011). Digital Microfluidic Biochips: A Vision for Functional Diversity and More than Moore. In: Voros, N., Mukherjee, A., Sklavos, N., Masselos, K., Huebner, M. (eds) VLSI 2010 Annual Symposium. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 105. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1488-5_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1488-5_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1487-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1488-5

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