Microfluidic biochips are soon expected to revolutionize clinical diagnostics, massively
parallel DNA analysis, and other laboratory procedures involving molecular biology.
In contrast to continuous-flow systems, a new generation of microfluidic biochips,
referred to as digital microfluidic biochips, offers dynamic reconfigurability and system
scalability that facilitate large-scale bioassay applications. As more bioassays are
executed concurrently on a biochip, system integration and design complexity are
expected to increase dramatically. Moreover, as many digital microfluidic biochips
will be used in safety-critical applications, defect/fault tolerance is also expected to
emerge as important design consideration.