Patent ID: 8473104

Claim:
A system for controlling the operation of a microfluidic device comprising a substrate having a micropassage configured for holding a micro-volume of liquid having a volume between one nano-liter and one micro-liter, a reaction chamber, and one or more active components, wherein one of the one or more active components comprise a hierarchical organization of device level components, the system comprising: a processor configured for receiving a user request for the microfluidic device to perform a reaction program; memory comprising stored instructions corresponding to hierarchical signals configured to direct the microfluidic device to perform the user-requested reaction program the hierarchical signals corresponding to: a component level instruction directing the generation of a control signal for an individual component of the microfluidic device; an actuator level function corresponding to an actuator operation, wherein the actuator level function comprises a plurality of component level functions; a microdroplet level function corresponding to an operation performed on a micro-volume of liquid contained within a microfluidic device, wherein the microdroplet level function comprises a plurality of actuator level functions; a user level function corresponding to the reaction program, the user level function corresponding to a plurality of microdroplet level functions; and a programmable digital acquisition unit comprising: a heater driver circuit; a temperature sensor driver circuit; and a detection driver circuit wherein the detection driver passes signals to at least one active component configured to detect reaction products in the reaction chamber; wherein the programmable digital acquisition unit generates control signals for the at least one active component corresponding to a component level instruction and responsive to the user-requested reaction program; and wherein the control signals of the programmable digital acquisition unit control (i) heating the micro-volume of liquid, (ii) detecting a temperature related to the micro-volume of liquid, and (iii) detecting reaction products in the micro-volume of liquid.