ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the problem of module placement in the geometry-level synthesis phase. It presents a simulated annealing-based heuristic for module placement in dynamically reconfigurable biochips. If module placement is carried out for a fabricated array, area minimization frees up more cells for sample collection and preparation. The chapter examines the fault tolerance index (FTI) in the placement procedure; and utilizes polymerase chain reaction and multiplexed diagnostics to evaluate the enhanced placement procedure. Monte Carlo simulation is a popular method for probabilistic analysis, and it can be used to estimate the FTI value. The chapter also presents an enhanced placement algorithm with biochip array area and fault tolerance capability as design metrics. The placement problem accounts for dynamic reconfigurability of droplet-based microfluidics, whereby groups of cells can be reconfigured to change their functionality during the concurrent execution of a set of bioassays.