Non-Regular Electrode Routing with Optimal Pin Selection for Electrowetting-on-Dielectric Chips.

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NR-Router is a tool that enables precise routing on glass-based and paper-based digital microfluidic EWOD (Electrowetting on Dielectric) chips with non-regular electrodes. The routing method is based on the minimum-cost maximum-flow network model, and the routing results can be directly provided to the fabrication facility.

The detailed algorithm logic can be referred to in the following paper in ASP-DAC: (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9712567).

Check out our online web-based CAD tool to get your routing result: http://cad.edroplets.org/

Getting Started

1. Set up a Python virtual environment by running the following command:

python -m venv venv

2. Activate the virtual environment:

source ./venv/bin/activate

3. Install the necessary Python packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the algorithm.

Place the input file for the algorithm in the ./ewd directory. You can specify a specific EWD file by adjusting the INPUT_FILE_NAME variable in ./config.py. The EWD file can be generated using the online DMF CAD tool at http://cad.edroplets.org/.

Execute the following command to run the algorithm:

python NR-Router.py CHIP_BASE[glass/paper] ELECTRODE_SIZE TILE_UNIT OUTPUT_FORMAT EWD_CONTENT

Note: If EWD_CONTENT is set to None, the algorithm will read the file specified by INPUT_FILE_NAME. Otherwise, it will perform routing using the provided EWD_CONTENT.

Here's an example command:

python NR-Router.py glass 2000 4 file

After running the command, the generated file will be located at ./dwg/mask.dxf. The resulting file can be opened and processed by AutoCAD for direct fabrication.

Routing result

Here is the routing result of a real-world EWOD chip.

Design rules

The design rules for NR-Router can be flexibly adjusted. You can modify the parameters in RouterConfig() within ./config.py.