Simultaneous Routing with Washing Droplets Based on Shape-Dependent Velocity Model in MEDA Biochips

Micro Electrode Dot Array (MEDA) biochips have recently attracted considerable attention in the biochemical and medical industries. MEDA biochips manipulate micro droplets for biochemical experiments such as DNA analysis. Droplets on MEDA biochips are moved using the Electrowetting on Dielectric (EWOD) effect, but a portion of a droplet may remain on a cell after passing through, contaminating the cell. Other droplets cannot pass through a contaminated cell. In previous studies, contaminated cells were considered unavailable for droplet routing. As the number of contaminated cells increases, droplets may be prevented from moving to the desired position. Therefore, we propose a method for simultaneous routing of target functional and washing droplets based on a shape-dependent velocity model. In a simulation, the proposed method reduced the routing time by about 10% compared with an existing method.