On the feasibility of using microfluidic technologies for communications in Labs-on-a-Chip

Microfluidics refers to manipulation and control of little amount of fluids flowing into channels of micro-scale size and is the basic technology utilized by Labs-on-a-Chip (LoC) systems. In the recent past researchers have analyzed the possibility to support information exchange between different elements of a LoC. However, support of communication in microfluidic systems relies on the use of appropriate information coding strategies and deep knowledge of channel propagation characteristics. Accordingly, in this paper we compare two different schemes for information coding and evaluate the corresponding capacities depending on the characteristics of the fluids utilized. Furthermore, we discuss how such encoding schemes can be integrated in networking solutions for LoCs.