DESIGN TOOLS FOR MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES
Robert Wille, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, AUSTRIA
Jan Madsen, Technical University of Denmark, DENMARK
Ulf Schlichtmann, Technische Universität München, GERMANY
Tsun-Ming Tseng, Technische Universität München, GERMANY

Workshop Description:
The workshop will be a combination of presentations and tool demonstrations. For three different microfluidic platforms, corresponding tools and methods are presented. Participants can download the corresponding tools from the internet or directly access them through a web-browser.

Overview of Material to Be Covered and What Attendees Can Expect to Take Away From the Workshop:
Microfluidic devices provide technological advances to several application areas such as biological cell studies, high throughput drug development, diagnostic screenings and many more. However, their design and eventual fabrication is a complex and often tedious tasks. Accordingly, several researchers started the development of tools and methods that support designers in those tasks or even completely automate them. This resulted in various methods e.g. for simulation, droplet routing, valve control, meander design, and many more. Unfortunately, those developments are frequently conducted and presented in venues focusing on design automation---leading to a situation in which the microfluidic community is often not aware of corresponding tools and, at the same time, the design automation community often develops solutions for the "wrong" problems.

This workshop aims to bridge these communities. To this end, design tools for different microfluidic platforms namely

• Droplet Microfluidic Networks
• Continuous-Flow Microfluidic Biochips, and
• Electrowetting-based Digital Microfluidic Biochips

are presented. Tool presentations, case studies, and hands-on experiences will demonstrate how existing methods for design automation may already help the microfluidic community today in designing and fabricating corresponding devices. At the same time, this will trigger discussions on how these tools, their coverage, as well as their accessibility should be improved.

Who Should Attend:
Designers, engineers, and researchers who design, simulate, and/or fabricate microfluidic devices relying on droplet microfluidic networks, continuous-flow microfluidic biochips, and electrowetting-based digital microfluidic biochips. The target audience includes possible end-users of the tools who are simply want to improve/accelerate their design flows but also engineers/researchers who interested in the underlying backend methods

Participants Will Need the Following:
Laptop