ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the problem of droplet routing between modules and between modules and I/O ports. It considers the problem of droplet routing in the biochip synthesis flow. The chapter presents a detailed experimental validation of the fluidic constraint rules used in the proposed routing method. The main objective in routing is to find droplet routes with minimum lengths, where route length is measured by the number of cells in the path from the starting point to the destination. Thus, for a microfluidic array of fixed size, minimumlength droplet routes lead to the minimization of the total number of cells used in droplet routing, thus freeing up more spare cells for fault tolerance. The chapter explores the proposed droplet routing method by using it to design a biochip that is used for a set of real-life bioassays, multiplexed in vitro diagnostics on human physiological fluids.
