Toward fault-tolerant and reconfigurable digital microfluidic biochips

Microfluidics-based biochips are revolutionizing high-throughput sequencing, parallel immunoassays, blood chemistry for clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery. These devices enable the precise control of nanoliter volumes of biochemical samples and regents. They combine electronics with biology, and they integrate various bioassay operations, such as sample preparation, analysis, separation, and detection. This survey paper provides an overview of droplet-based “digital” microfluidic biochips. It describes emerging techniques for designing fault-tolerant and reconfigurable digital microfluidic biochips. Recent advances in fault modeling, testing, diagnosis and reconfiguration techniques are presented. These quality-driven techniques ensure that biochips can be used reliably during liquid-based biochemical assays.