Issue 21, 2009

Microfluidic pneumatic logic circuits and digital pneumatic microprocessors for integrated microfluidic systems

Abstract

We have developed pneumatic logic circuits and microprocessors built with microfluidic channels and valves in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The pneumatic logic circuits perform various combinational and sequential logic calculations with binary pneumatic signals (atmosphere and vacuum), producing cascadable outputs based on Boolean operations. A complex microprocessor is constructed from combinations of various logic circuits and receives pneumatically encoded serial commands at a single input line. The device then decodes the temporal command sequence by spatial parallelization, computes necessary logic calculations between parallelized command bits, stores command information for signal transportation and maintenance, and finally executes the command for the target devices. Thus, such pneumatic microprocessors will function as a universal on-chip control platform to perform complex parallel operations for large-scale integrated microfluidic devices. To demonstrate the working principles, we have built 2-bit, 3-bit, 4-bit, and 8-bit microprocessors to control various target devices for applications such as four color dye mixing, and multiplexed channel fluidic control. By significantly reducing the need for external controllers, the digital pneumatic microprocessor can be used as a universal on-chip platform to autonomously manipulate microfluids in a high throughput manner.

Graphical abstract: Microfluidic pneumatic logic circuits and digital pneumatic microprocessors for integrated microfluidic systems

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Mar 2009
Accepted
23 Jul 2009
First published
20 Aug 2009

Lab Chip, 2009,9, 3131-3143

Microfluidic pneumatic logic circuits and digital pneumatic microprocessors for integrated microfluidic systems

M. Rhee and M. A. Burns, Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 3131 DOI: 10.1039/B904354C

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