Design automation issues for biofluidic microchips

Biotechnologists have started to exploit the IC industry's planar microfabrication technology. The state of the art in planar biofluidic microdevices is reviewed as a way of introducing biochip design issues. As with transistor ICs, design aids that span the entire ICCAD program from modeling and simulation to synthesis and physical design are needed to address these issues. Hierarchical design representations, modeling abstractions, and algorithms pertaining to biochip design will be reviewed. Potential future challenges will be identified to motivate how the ICCAD community can contribute to this emerging area.