Multi-terminal PCB escape routing for digital microfluidic biochips using negotiated congestion

This paper introduces a multi-terminal escape routing algorithm for the design of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) that control Digital Microfluidic Biochips (DMFBs). The new algorithm is based on the principle of negotiated congestion, which has been applied in the past to problems including FPGA routing and PCB escape routing for single-terminal nets. PCBs designed for Pin-constrained DMFBs, in which one control pin may drive multiple electrodes, require multi-terminal escape routing solutions. Experimental results indicate that negotiated congestion is more effective for multi-terminal escape routing than existing techniques, which are based on maze routing coupled with rip-up and re-route, yielding an overall reduction in the number of PCB layers in most the test cases that were tried.