M.K. Goldberg

Bio: M.K. Goldberg is an academic researcher from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Planar array & Digital microfluidics. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 159 citations.

Performance Characterization of a Reconfigurable Planar-Array Digital Microfluidic System

Abstract: This paper describes a computational approach to designing a digital microfluidic system (DMFS) that can be rapidly reconfigured for new biochemical analyses. Such a “lab-on-a-chip” system for biochemical analysis, based on electrowetting or dielectrophoresis, must coordinate the motions of discrete droplets or biological cells using a planar array of electrodes. The authors have earlier introduced a layout-based system and demonstrated its flexibility through simulation, including the system's ability to perform multiple assays simultaneously. Since array-layout design and droplet-routing strategies are closely related in such a DMFS, their goal is to provide designers with algorithms that enable rapid simulation and control of these DMFS devices. In this paper, the effects of variations in the basic array-layout design, droplet-routing control algorithms, and droplet spacing on system performance are characterized. DMFS arrays with hardware limited row-column addressing are considered, and a polynomial-time algorithm for coordinating droplet movement under such hardware limitations is developed. To demonstrate the capabilities of our system, we describe example scenarios, including dilution control and minimalist layouts, in which our system can be successfully applied.

Digital microfluidics: is a true lab-on-a-chip possible?

Abstract: The suitability of electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWD) microfluidics for true lab-on-a-chip applications is discussed. The wide diversity in biomedical applications can be parsed into manageable components and assembled into architecture that requires the advantages of being programmable, reconfigurable, and reusable. This capability opens the possibility of handling all of the protocols that a given laboratory application or a class of applications would require. And, it provides a path toward realizing the true lab-on-a-chip. However, this capability can only be realized with a complete set of elemental fluidic components that support all of the required fluidic operations. Architectural choices are described along with the realization of various biomedical fluidic functions implemented in on-chip electrowetting operations. The current status of this EWD toolkit is discussed. However, the question remains: which applications can be performed on a digital microfluidic platform? And, are there other advantages offered by electrowetting technology, such as the programming of different fluidic functions on a common platform (reconfigurability)? To understand the opportunities and limitations of EWD microfluidics, this paper looks at the development of lab-on-chip applications in a hierarchical approach. Diverse applications in biotechnology, for example, will serve as the basis for the requirements for electrowetting devices. These applications drive a set of biomedical fluidic functions required to perform an application, such as cell lysing, molecular separation, or analysis. In turn, each fluidic function encompasses a set of elemental operations, such as transport, mixing, or dispensing. These elemental operations are performed on an elemental set of components, such as electrode arrays, separation columns, or reservoirs. Examples of the incorporation of these principles in complex biomedical applications are described.

Miniaturized PCR chips for nucleic acid amplification and analysis: latest advances and future trends

Abstract: The possibility of performing fast and small-volume nucleic acid amplification and analysis on a single chip has attracted great interest. Devices based on this idea, referred to as micro total analysis, microfluidic analysis, or simply ‘Lab on a chip’ systems, have witnessed steady advances over the last several years. Here, we summarize recent research on chip substrates, surface treatments, PCR reaction volume and speed, architecture, approaches to eliminating cross-contamination and control and measurement of temperature and liquid flow. We also discuss product-detection methods, integration of functional components, biological samples used in PCR chips, potential applications and other practical issues related to implementation of lab-on-a-chip technologies.

A High-Performance Droplet Routing Algorithm for Digital Microfluidic Biochips

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a high-performance droplet router for a digital microfluidic biochip (DMFB) design. Due to recent advancements in the biomicro electromechanical system and its various applications to clinical, environmental, and military operations, the design complexity and the scale of a DMFB are expected to explode in the near future, thus requiring strong support from CAD as in conventional VLSI design. Among the multiple design stages of a DMFB, droplet routing, which schedules the movement of each droplet in a time-multiplexed manner, is one of the most critical design challenges due to high complexity as well as large impacts on performance. Our algorithm first routes a droplet with higher by passibility which is less likely to block the movement of the others. When multiple droplets form a deadlock, our algorithm resolves it by backing off some droplets for concession. The final compaction step further enhances timing as well as fault tolerance by tuning each droplet movement greedily. The experimental results on hard benchmarks show that our algorithm achieves over 35 x and 20 x better routability with comparable timing and fault tolerance than the popular prioritized A* search and the state-of-the-art network-flow-based algorithm, respectively.

Optimization of Dilution and Mixing of Biochemical Samples Using Digital Microfluidic Biochips

Abstract: The recent emergence of lab-on-a-chip (LoC) technology has led to a paradigm shift in many healthcare-related application areas, e.g., point-of-care clinical diagnostics, high-throughput sequencing, and proteomics. A promising category of LoCs is digital microfluidic (DMF)-based biochips, in which nanoliter-volume fluid droplets are manipulated on a 2-D electrode array. A key challenge in designing such chips and mapping lab-bench protocols to a LoC is to carry out the dilution process of biochemical samples efficiently. As an optimization and automation technique, we present a dilution/mixing algorithm that significantly reduces the production of waste droplets. This algorithm takes O(n) time to compute at most n sequential mix/split operations required to achieve any given target concentration with an error in concentration factor less than [1/(2n)]. To implement the algorithm, we design an architectural layout of a DMF-based LoC consisting of two O(n)-size rotary mixers and O(n) storage electrodes. Simulation results show that the proposed technique always yields nonnegative savings in the number of waste droplets and also in the total number of input droplets compared to earlier methods.