Waste-aware fluid volume assignment for flow-based microfluidic biochips

Abstract

Microfluidic biochips are replacing the conventional biochemical analysers integrating the necessary functions onchip. We are interested in Flow-Based Microfluidic Biochips (FBMB), where a continuous flow of liquid is manipulated using integrated microvalves. Using microvalves and channels, more complex Fluidic Units (FUs) such as switches, micropumps, mixers and separators can be constructed. When running a biochemical application on a FBMB, fluid volumes are dispensed from input reservoirs and used by the FUs. Given a biochemical application and a biochip, we are interested in determining the fluid volume assignment for each operation of the application, such that the FUs volume requirements are satisfied, while over- and underflow are avoided and the total volume of fluid used is minimized. We propose an algorithm for this fluid assignment problem. Compared to previous work, our method is able to minimize the fluid consumption through optimal fluid assignment and reuse of fluid waste. Due to the algorithm's low complexity, fluid requirements can also be calculated during runtime for error recovery or statically unknown cases.