An Intelligent Digital Microfluidic Processor for Biomedical Detection

Abstract

An intelligent digital microfluidic processor for biomedical detection is presented. This potential architecture solves lots of traditional development bottlenecks to implement the easy-to-control, easy-to-monitor, system automation and high accuracy for bioassay detection purposes. The proposed processor integrates the functions of microfluidic actuation, droplet location readback and high sensitivity measurement window to demonstrate a novel prototype for personalized medicine. Furthermore, the droplet location map and reaction behaviors are visible on a 2-dimentional (2D) graphical user-interface due to the micro electrode dot array (MEDA) architecture and capacitive sensing technology, and hence system automation is achievable. Fabricated in standard 0.35 mu m CMOS process, this work integrates 900 microelectrodes with measurement window in 3.2 mm(2), where the high sensitivity capacitive readout circuit occupies only 0.048 mm(2). Measurement results show that microdroplet actuation and 2D location map are activated under 1KHz. In addition, the function of digital signal extraction, processing, as well as statistical analysis can be operated under 1 MHz respectively.