Yield Enhancement of Digital Microfluidics-Based Biochips Using Space Redundancy and Local Reconfiguration

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel interstitial redundancy and local reconfiguration method to improve the manufacturing yield of droplet-based microfluidic biochips, addressing reliability issues in complex biochip production.

Contribution

It proposes a new design approach with spare cells in interstitial sites for local reconfiguration to enhance biochip yield.

Findings

Significant yield improvement demonstrated through real-life bioassay evaluations.

Redundancy approach effectively replaces faulty cells, increasing reliability.

Method applicable to complex microfluidic biochip designs.

Abstract

As microfluidics-based biochips become more complex, manufacturing yield will have significant influence on production volume and product cost. We propose an interstitial redundancy approach to enhance the yield of biochips that are based on droplet-based microfluidics. In this design method, spare cells are placed in the interstitial sites within the microfluidic array, and they replace neighboring faulty cells via local reconfiguration. The proposed design method is evaluated using a set of concurrent real-life bioassays.