A novel partitioning approach for digital microfluidic biochips enabling structural testability

The concept of digital microfluidic biochip is bound to revolutionize the speed, precision and reliability of clinical diagnosis, forensic investigations and drug testing mechanisms in medical science and pharmaceutical industries. This can usher in a new horizon in the health care scenario of human society. Structural testing of digital microfluidic biochips detects the defects in the cell based structure and ensures its operational viability. This paper proposed a new partitioning technique for structural testing of these bio-MEMS. The digital microfluidic array has been partitioned both laterally as well as longitudinally and within each part a test droplet moves on. These test droplets follow a eulerian route within their designated partition or cluster for bidirectional movement through each cell. Partitioning the digital microfluidic array in the proposed fashion not only reduces the number of testing steps but also testing time to a great extent compared to previous methods.