Digital microfluidic system: A new design for heterogeneous sample based integration of multiple DMFBs

Abstract

A second generation Lab-on-chip device termed as digital micro fluidic biochip (DMFB) has been developed in recent years as a time multiplexed reconfigurable device capable of executing multiple bioassay protocols simultaneously on a single 2D planar array. Optical detection, processing and analysis are considered to be of major significance in bioassay operations as this may influence the conclusive decisions involving diagnosis, detection and testing. Detection results obtained from a series of tests in a single biochip-may prompt to perform next sequence of tests on separate biochips in order to converge towards specific disease profile, diagnosis and determination of the future course of treatment. In this paper we have first proposed a design of a digital detection analyzer circuit to be coupled with a biochip for execution of prescheduled multiple bioassay protocols. The analyzer enables automated detailed analysis of the optical detection results based on the data acquired at the detection site through successful Biochip operation for heterogeneous droplet samples. we further proposed a design of centralized controller that operates on the basis of the digitized output pattern obtained from the proposed analyzer for a specific test sequence and logically determines the address of the next biochip to perform the next test sequences destined in the diagnostic process flow using an intelligent database stored in the integrated system memory. The synthesis, simulation for the overall system has been carried out using precharacterized reference data for measurement of different parameters of human blood samples and corresponding final detection results are displayed and verified successfully. © 2013 IEEE.