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    基于深度强化学习的连续微流控生物芯片控制逻辑布线

    Control Logic Routing for Continuous-Flow Microfluidic Biochips Using Deep Reinforcement Learning

    • 摘要: 随着电子设计自动化技术的迅速发展,连续微流控生物芯片成为了目前最具前景的生化实验平台之一. 该芯片通过采用内部的微阀门以及微通道以操纵体积仅为毫升或纳升的流体样品,从而自动执行混合和检测等基本的生化实验操作. 为了实现正确的生化测定功能,部署于芯片内部的微阀门通常需要由基于多路复用器的控制逻辑进行管控,其通过控制通道获得来自核心输入的控制信号以实现精确切换. 由于生化反应通常需要非常高的灵敏度,因此为了保证信号的即时传输,需要尽可能地减少连接每个阀门的控制路径长度,以降低信号传输的时延. 此外,为了降低芯片的制造成本,如何有效减少控制逻辑中通道的总长度也是逻辑架构设计需要解决的关键问题之一. 针对上述问题,提出了一种基于深度强化学习的控制逻辑布线算法以最小化信号传输时延以及控制通道总长度,从而自动构建高效的控制通道网络. 该算法采用竞争深度Q网络架构作为深度强化学习框架的智能体,从而对信号传输时延和通道总线长进行权衡评估. 此外,针对控制逻辑首次实现了对角型的通道布线,从根本上提高了阀门切换操作的效率并降低了芯片的制造成本. 实验结果表明,所提出的算法能够有效构建高性能、低成本的控制逻辑架构.

       

      Abstract: With the advancement of electronic design automation, continuous-flow microfluidic biochips have become one of the most promising platforms for biochemical experiments. This chip manipulates fluid samples in milliliters or nanoliters by utilizing internal microvalves and microchannels, and thus automatically performs basic biochemical experiments, such as mixing and detection. To achieve the correct bioassay function, the microvalves deployed inside the chip are usually managed by a multiplexer-based control logic, and valves receive control signals from a core input through the control channel for accurate switching. Since biochemical reactions typically require high sensitivity, the length of control paths connecting each valve needs to be reduced to ensure immediate signal propagation, and thus to reduce the signal propagation delay. In addition, to reduce the fabrication cost of chips, a vital issue to be addressed in the logic architecture design is how to effectively reduce the total channel length within the control logic. To address the above issues, this paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning-based control logic routing algorithm to minimize the signal propagation delay and total control channel length, thereby automatically constructing an efficient control channel network. The algorithm employs the Dueling Deep Q-Network architecture as the agent of the deep reinforcement learning framework to evaluate the tradeoff between signal propagation delay and total channel length. Besides, the diagonal channel routing is implemented for the first time for control logic, thus fundamentally improving the efficiency of valve switching operations and reducing the fabrication cost of the chip. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively construct a high-performance and low-cost control logic architecture.

       

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