The main unit of our system, the Chemical Microprocessor (ChµP) is an electronically programmable microfluidic chip equipped with microelectrodes and fluidic channels and chambers, linked to a reconfigurable electronic chip. The microelectrodes are the actuator components in the microfluidic network. Furthermore, the BioModule contains a standard field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA, Spartan2 Xilinx). The reconfigurable logic device is integrated on this BioMEMS device to control a maximum number of electrodes individually. With this intimate control of biochemical processes a precondition for "live control" comes within reach, that the seamless integration of computer technology and biology occur in both directions simultaneously. This involves both the real time detection and data analysis of the biomolecular system and the active control of biomolecules in a hybrid system [1,2].
Overall design development: