Advanced fault detection and localization in cross-referencing digital micro-fluidic biochips

Cross-referencing digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) is becoming increasingly appealing as it significantly reduces the design's pin count. However, routing multiple droplets simultaneously within this architecture presents a challenging task. As a result, detecting multiple faulty electrodes within this setup has gained more attention. This paper introduces an advanced and rigorous offline testing technique that addresses the challenges of electrode interference and dynamic fluidic constraints. Given the need to manage multiple droplets simultaneously throughout the testing process, our approach meticulously considers every fine detail. We account for the time taken to reach pseudo-sources from the source, and from the pseudo-sinks to the sink, in addition to the actual travel time. Testing simulations have been conducted on various 2D grid sizes, with results showing a significant improvement in total detection time compared to some existing methods. This proposed technique successfully overcomes several limitations that previous works encountered.