Invited paper - Connecting the D.O.T.S.: Design of fluidic circuit boards for multi-OoC platforms using CAD Tools for Standardization

One of the advantages of microfluidic chips is their ability to enable multiple processes on a single platform. With the Translational Organ-on-Chip Platform, we can combine multiple Organ-on-Chip (OoC) systems with other building blocks to facilitate seamless integration of inline sensing and complex multi-organ experiments. A significant challenge in this research is generating the correct microfluidic routing architecture. The geometry of routing channels must be chosen carefully, as it directly affects fluid flow distribution and circulation within and between the microfluidic building blocks. Currently, this routing is typically performed manually by drawing the channel geometry in computer-aided design software. In the field of design automation, several software packages already exist that enable the automatic design of electrical connections/signals. Therefore, we present a comprehensive method for multilayer fluidic channel routing in this paper, utilizing the printed circuit board designer from Fusion electronics, a commonly used software package in the microfluidics field. We demonstrate this method by routing a complex multi-OoC system designed to study mechanobiology, which contains multiple independent fluidic loops and pneumatic circuitry. We continue to discuss the advantages and limitations of the method presented in this paper to finally arrive at a list of desired functionalities for to-be-developed microfluidics-tailored routing tools. We envision the method and observations presented here as inspiration for the development of future microfluidics-specific tools.