MF-CAE: A Novel Lab on a Chip Simulation Tool

Abstract

The design of micro fluidic systems with a large number of dynamic on-chip components poses a challenge because today it is difficult to simulate time dependent transport of solvent and solutes through complex chips inclusive of dispersion and convection with low time-cost. Present approaches based on 3D CFD tools are inadequate for system-level simulation. To address these needs, we propose a novel general simulation method for the approximate solution of linear and nonlinear, static and time-dependent solute and solvent transport in large chips with no need for analytical solution. Some design, modeling, and simulation features of a computer aided engineering tool for micro fluidic systems called MF-CAE (Micro fluidic CAE) are presented. The features include: an extensible modeling framework for computationally efficient lumped models, a flexible SPICE-like net list language for micro fluidic system design, a user friendly graphical user interface that allows users to quickly configure complex system, and a compact toolkit integrating design, simulation and data displaying. In this paper MF-CAE's architecture, reduced order modeling technique and design methodology are described. A comparison of behavior of micro fluidic dilution networks indicates that the simulation results are in good agreement with the model simulations.