Chapter 9
Integrated Design Process
Recall, there is no (or not yet) an integrated design process for droplet microfluidic
networks and also the tasks which have to be conducted heavily depend on the
realized application and the applied technologies. Therefore, these tasks are often
conducted manually using calculations, simplifications, as well as assumptions and
require the consideration of a large number of design parameters.
In order to address this status quo, Part II presented a “toolbox” in the
form of automatic design methods, which supports designers in single tasks like
simulation, dimensioning, or designing meanders. The previous chapters of this
part additionally introduced dedicated methods for microfluidic networks based on
passive droplet routing. By this, several automatic methods are available that support
the designer in major tasks of the design process of droplet microfluidic networks
in general as well as when the networks are based on passive droplet routing in
particular.
This chapter demonstrates that these methods can even be combined to an
integrated design process for designing microfluidic networks based on passive
droplet routing. An overall overview how these methods are combined is provided in
Fig. 9.1. Starting from a set of experiments, first an application-specific architecture
is determined (using the method proposed in Chap. 7). Second, this architecture
is dimensioned in order to obtain a specification ensuring a correct droplet flow
(using one of the methods proposed in Chap. 4). The resulting specification of
the microfluidic network allows to determine an instance of the discrete model,
which, afterwards, can be used for determining droplet sequences or for verifying
the microfluidic network whether it allows to execute all experiments (using
the methods proposed in Chap. 8). If no droplet sequence exists which would
realize a desired experiment, the designer has to modify the microfluidic network
(cf. depicted by the backward arrows in Fig. 9.1). Finally, when the designer is
drawing the physical design, he/she is able to generate parts of the physical design
(i.e. meander channels). In the following, these steps of the integrated design process
are described in the form of a running example.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Grimmer, R. Wille, Designing Droplet Microfluidic Networks,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20713-7_9
127
Integrated Design Process
Recall, there is no (or not yet) an integrated design process for droplet microfluidic
networks and also the tasks which have to be conducted heavily depend on the
realized application and the applied technologies. Therefore, these tasks are often
conducted manually using calculations, simplifications, as well as assumptions and
require the consideration of a large number of design parameters.
In order to address this status quo, Part II presented a “toolbox” in the
form of automatic design methods, which supports designers in single tasks like
simulation, dimensioning, or designing meanders. The previous chapters of this
part additionally introduced dedicated methods for microfluidic networks based on
passive droplet routing. By this, several automatic methods are available that support
the designer in major tasks of the design process of droplet microfluidic networks
in general as well as when the networks are based on passive droplet routing in
particular.
This chapter demonstrates that these methods can even be combined to an
integrated design process for designing microfluidic networks based on passive
droplet routing. An overall overview how these methods are combined is provided in
Fig. 9.1. Starting from a set of experiments, first an application-specific architecture
is determined (using the method proposed in Chap. 7). Second, this architecture
is dimensioned in order to obtain a specification ensuring a correct droplet flow
(using one of the methods proposed in Chap. 4). The resulting specification of
the microfluidic network allows to determine an instance of the discrete model,
which, afterwards, can be used for determining droplet sequences or for verifying
the microfluidic network whether it allows to execute all experiments (using
the methods proposed in Chap. 8). If no droplet sequence exists which would
realize a desired experiment, the designer has to modify the microfluidic network
(cf. depicted by the backward arrows in Fig. 9.1). Finally, when the designer is
drawing the physical design, he/she is able to generate parts of the physical design
(i.e. meander channels). In the following, these steps of the integrated design process
are described in the form of a running example.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Grimmer, R. Wille, Designing Droplet Microfluidic Networks,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20713-7_9
127