SP2PDM - Development of Design Automation Methods for Sample Preparation on Two-Phase Droplet Microfluidic Labs-on-Chips

Microfluidic labs-on-chip have fuelled the automation of biochemical protocols on a tiny device and found versatile applications in healthcare industry. Sample preparation, which includes dilution and mixing, is needed as a preprocessing step in most bioassays. Two-Phase Droplet Microfluidic (TPDM) biochips is a popular technology for a wide range of applications and offers a unique route for precisely executing such sample preparation operations on-chip with a small volume of reagents in significantly less time. Unfortunately, because of several shortcomings (e.g., physical constraints, designers objectives), no attempt has been made, so far, for realizing sample preparation with TPDM. Therefore, in order to make TPDM more efficient and practical for healthcare applications, in this project, we are addressing this serious shortcoming and proposing the development of a high-end automatic design flow for sample preparation at the TPMD platform. Moreover, the suitability of the designs will be ensured by utilizing cost-effective simulation methods that can validate the functionality before fabricating a device as well as explicit experiments.