Software-programmable continuous-flow multi-purpose lab-on-a-chip.
Current lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices are assay-specific and are custom-built for each single experiment. Performing an experiment requires scientists or engineers to go through the time-consuming process of designing, fabricating, and testing a chip before conducting the actual experiment. This prolonged cycle can take months to complete, increasing effort and cost and reducing productivity. Similarly, minor modifications to an assay protocol re-incur the overheads of the design cycle. In this paper, we develop amulti-purpose, software-programmableLab-on-a-Chip(SPLoC), where the user simply writes or downloads a program for each experiment. We describe the components necessary to realize the SPLoC, which include a high-level programming language, an abstract instruction set, a runtime and control system, and a microfluidic device. We describe two key features of our high-level language compiler, and describe a novel variable-volume variable-ratio mixer. Finally, we demonstrate our SPLoC on four diverse, real-world assays.
Microfluidic Innovations, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
Ahmed M
AM
Amin
Birck Nanotechnology Center, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Raviraj
R
Thakur
Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
Seth
S
Madren
Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Han-Sheng
HS
Chuang
School of Electrical and Computer N.Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA mithuna@purdue.edu.
Mithuna
M
Thottethodi
School of Electrical and Computer N.Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA vijay@ecn.purdue.edu.
T N
TN
Vijaykumar
Birck Nanotechnology Center, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA wereley@purdue.edu.
Steven T
ST
Wereley
Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA jacobson@indiana.edu.
Stephen C
SC
Jacobson