Synthesis of Error-Recovery Protocols for Micro-Electrode-Dot-Array Digital Microfluidic Biochips

Abstract

A digital microfluidic biochip (DMFB) is an attractive technology platform for various biomedical applications. However, a conventional DMFB is limited by: (i) the number of electrical connections that can be practically realized, (ii) constraints on droplet size and volume, and (iii) the need for special fabrication processes and the associated reliability/yield concerns. To overcome the above challenges, DMFBs based on a micro-electrode-dot-array (MEDA) architecture have been proposed and fabricated recently. Error recovery is of key interest for MEDA biochips due to the need for system reliability. Errors are likely to occur during droplet manipulation due to defects, chip degradation, and the uncertainty inherent in biochemical experiments. In this paper, we first formalize error-recovery objectives, and then synthesize optimal error-recovery protocols using a model based on Stochastic Multiplayer Games (SMGs). We also present a global error-recovery technique that can update the schedule of fluidic operations in an adaptive manner. Using three representative real-life bioassays, we show that the proposed approach can effectively reduce the bioassay completion time and increase the probability of success for error recovery.