DocumentCode :
1370978
Title :
A Network-Flow Based Pin-Count Aware Routing Algorithm for Broadcast-Addressing EWOD Chips
Author :
Huang, Tsung-Wei ; Yeh, Shih-Yuan ; Ho, Tsung-Yi
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Inf. Eng., Nat. Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan, Taiwan
Volume :
30
Issue :
12
fYear :
2011
Firstpage :
1786
Lastpage :
1799
Abstract :
Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) chips have emerged as the most widely used actuators for digital microfluidic (DMF) systems. These devices enable the electrical manipulation of microfluidics with various advantages, such as low power consumption, flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency. In addressing the need for low-cost and practical fabrication, pin-count reduction has become a key problem to the large-scale integration of EWOD-chip designs. One of the major approaches, broadcast addressing, reduces the pin count by assigning a single control pin to multiple electrodes with mutually compatible control signals. Most previous studies utilize this addressing scheme by scheduling fluidic-level synthesis on pin-constrained chip arrays. However, the associated interconnect routing problem is still not provided in currently available DMF automations, and thus the broadcast-addressing scheme cannot be actually realized. In this paper, we present the first network-flow based pin-count aware routing algorithm for EWOD-chip designs with a broadcast electrode-addressing scheme. Our algorithm simultaneously takes pin-count reduction and wirelength minimization into consideration for higher integration and better design performance. Experimental results show the effectiveness and scalability of our algorithm on a set of real-life chip applications.
Keywords :
dielectric devices; lab-on-a-chip; microfluidics; wetting; broadcast-addressing EWOD chips; digital microfluidic systems; electrowetting-on-dielectric chips; fluidic-level synthesis; interconnect routing problem; network-flow based pin-count aware routing algorithm; pin-constrained chip arrays; pin-count reduction; wirelength minimization; Actuators; Algorithm design and analysis; Broadcast technology; Electrodes; Microfluidics; Power demand; Printed circuits; Broadcast-addressing biochips; network flow; printed circuit board; routing;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0278-0070
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TCAD.2011.2163158
Filename :
6071082
Link To Document :
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