Synthesis of Microfluidic Chip Designs using SMT Solvers

微流控芯片是一种芯片实验室设备，其传输液体的通道而不是携带电子的导线，由于其在测试分析和大规模化学反应自动化中的应用，最近引起了生物医学行业的极大关注。这些芯片承诺大幅降低大规模反应和生化传感器的成本。在这笔赠款期间，微流体的市场估计将增长到100亿美元以上。 与计算机芯片设计一样，迫切需要能够帮助设计、测试和验证微流控芯片的自动化工具。目前的实践状态是，微流控芯片是使用猜测和检查的方法手动设计的。通常，设计人员会根据经验选择设计参数，然后在MatLab、COMSOL或类似工具中编写模拟代码。如果模拟成功，那么可能会建造一个原型芯片进行物理测试。 微流控芯片设计必须考虑多种物理属性，潜在地包括流体、压力、空间、电、热和光学，这一事实加剧了这种情况。如果设计者在这些尺寸中的任何一个上出现错误或遗漏，则设计可能不会按预期工作。 我们提出了一种基于SMT求解器的微流控芯片设计方法，目标是产生结构上正确的设计。(至少在描述设计的数学模型方面是正确的；就像在工程的其他领域一样，这些模型有时并不完美地表示物理现实。)芯片设计者将指定已知值，如井的位置或某些激活电压，然后系统将求解其他设计参数(如回拉电压)。 最近，CMU开发了DREAL：一个SMT求解器，用于求解实数上的非线性多变量不等式。我们已经用DREAL构建了概念验证原型，以证明它可以用于微流控芯片的设计。 我们打算开发用于微流控电路的高级硬件描述语言，并以降阶模型为起点，开发一个基于CEGAR(反例导引的抽象求精)的计算框架。 该提案包括7名研究生：2名博士+5名硕士 与Abukhdeir(计算流体力学)共同指导的1个博士学位 1个MASC与Ren&Backhouse(微流体)共同监督 1个MASC与Kennings(电子设计自动化)共同监督 微流控芯片的设计极其复杂。对设计自动化工具的需求非常大。SMT解算器的最新进展使它们适用于这些问题。我们建议使用(并增强)这些解算器来创建微流控设计工具，以帮助芯片设计者设计出结构上正确的设计。

Microfluidic chips, lab-on-a-chip devices that have channels transporting liquids instead of wires carrying electrons, have attracted considerable attention recently from the bio-medical industry because of their application in testing assay and large-scale chemical reaction automation. These chips promise dramatic reduction in the cost of large-scale reactions and bio-chemical sensors. The market for microfluidics is estimated to grow to over $10B in the duration of this grant. As in computer chip design, there is an acute need for automation tools that can assist with design, testing and verification of microfluidic chips. The current state of practice is that microfluidics chips are designed manually using a guess-and-check approach. Typically a designer will select design parameters based on experience, and then code a simulation in Matlab, COMSOL, or a similar tool. If the simulation succeeds, then a prototype chip might be built for physical testing. This state of affairs is exacerbated by the reality that a microfluidic chip design must consider a wide variety of physical properties, potentially including fluid, pressure, spatial, electrical, thermal, and optical. If the designer makes an error or omission on any one of these dimensions then the design might not work as intended. We propose a design methodology for microfluidic chips based on SMT solvers, with the goal of producing designs that are correct by construction. (At least correct with respect to the mathematical models that are used to describe the design; as in other areas of engineering, these models are sometimes imperfect representations of physical reality.) The chip designer will specify known values, such as the location of wells or certain activation voltages, and then the system will solve for the other design parameters (such as the pull-back voltages). Recently, CMU has developed dReal: an SMT solver for nonlinear multi-variate inequalities over the reals. We have constructed proof-of-concept prototypes with dReal to demonstrate that it can be used for microfluidic chip design. We intend to develop high-level hardware description languages for microfluidic circuits, and a computational framework based on CEGAR (Counter-Example Guided Abstraction Refinement), using Reduced Order Models as the starting point. This proposal comprises 7 graduate students: 2 PhD + 5 MASc 1 PhD co-supervised with Abukhdeir (computational fluid dynamics) 1 MASc co-supervised with Ren & Backhouse (microfluidics) 1 MASc co-supervised with Kennings (electronic design automation) Microfluidic chip design is exceedingly complex. There is a great need for design automation tools. Recent advances in SMT solvers make them applicable to these problems. We propose to use (and enhance) these solvers to create microfluidic design tools that help chip designers produce designs that are correct by construction.