UC Riverside

A software toolchain for physical design and layout for the flow layer of microfluidic laboratories on a chip ( LoCs) based on integrated microvalve technology is reported. LoCs based on monolithic membrane valves are built using two glass plates that sandwich a thin layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a flexible and inert organic polymer. Etched channels in the two glass plates, respectively, provide distinct layers for fluid and pneumatic control. The biochemical reaction executes on the flow layer, while the control layer delivers pressure to each microvalve to control fluids in the flow layer. The planar layout for the fluid flow layer is converted to a scalable vector graphic (SVG) file, which can be used to create a mask that produces patterns for etched channels in one of the two glass layers. If a legal placement and routing solution is not found at N hops, then we try again at N=2 hops, etc. This ensures that a legal placement and routing solution is found for each perimeter component after O(log N) routing attempts. It is clear from a straightforward visual inspection that numerous local perturbations to the component layout could reduce chip area and/or fluid routing channel length.