Flow-based microfluidic biochips have attracted much attention in the EDA community due to their miniaturized size and execution efficiency. Previous research, however, still follows the traditional computing model with a dedicated storage unit, which actually becomes a bottleneck of the performance of biochips. In this article, we propose a distributed channel-storage architecture (DCSA) to cache fluid samples inside flow channels temporarily. Since distributed storage can be accessed more efficiently than a dedicated storage unit and channels can switch between the roles of transportation and storage easily, biochips with this architecture can achieve a higher execution efficiency even with fewer resources. Furthermore, we also address the flow-path planning that enables the manipulation of actual fluid transportation/caching on a chip. The simulation results confirm that the execution efficiency of a bioassay can be improved significantly, while the number of valves in the biochip can be reduced accordingly. Also, flow paths for transportation tasks can be constructed and planned automatically with minimum extra resources.

中文翻译：

---

DCSA：用于基于流的微流体生物芯片的分布式通道存储架构

基于流的微流控生物芯片由于其小型化和执行效率而在 EDA 社区中备受关注。然而，之前的研究还是沿用了传统的计算模式，有专门的存储单元，这实际上成为了生物芯片性能的瓶颈。在本文中，我们提出了一种分布式通道存储架构（DCSA）来临时缓存流动通道内的流体样本。由于分布式存储可以比专用存储单元更有效地访问，并且通道可以轻松地在传输和存储的角色之间切换，因此采用这种架构的生物芯片即使在资源较少的情况下也可以实现更高的执行效率。此外，我们还解决了能够在芯片上操纵实际流体传输/缓存的流路规划。仿真结果证实，可以显着提高生物测定的执行效率，同时可以相应减少生物芯片中的阀门数量。此外，可以使用最少的额外资源自动构建和规划运输任务的流路。