An efficient bi-criteria flow channel routing algorithm for flow-based microfluidic biochips

Abstract

Rapid growth in capacity makes ow-based micro uidic biochips a promising candidate for biochemical analysis be-cause they can integrate more complex functions. However, as the number of components grows, the total length of ow channels between components must increase exponentially. Recent empirical studies show that long ow channels are vulnerable due to blocking and leakage defects. Thus, it is desirable to minimize the total length of ow channels for robustness. Also, for timing-sensitive biochemical assays, increase in the longest length of ow channel will delay the assay completion time and lead to variation of uid, thereby affecting the correctness of outcome. The increasing num-ber of components, including the pre-placed components, on the chip makes the ow channel routing problem even more complicated. In this paper, we propose an effcient obstacle-avoiding rectilinear Steiner minimum tree algorithm to deal with ow channel routing problem in ow-based micro uidic biochips. Based on the concept of Kruskal algorithm and formulating the considerations as a bi-criteria function, our algorithm is capable of simultaneously minimizing the total length and the longest length of ow channel. Copyright 2014 ACM.